Indian Drugmakers Resist US Calls for Tighter IP Laws

Indian drugmakers are resisting calls from the US for tighter intellectual property (IP) laws in the country.   The Economic Times reports that the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) wrote to industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday - just ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US - to state that tighter IP laws will hurt the domestic industry and impede consumers' access to affordable healthcare.   Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden of the Senate Committee on Finance, and Paul Ryan and Sandy Levin of the House Committee on Ways and Means have expressed concerns about India's "insufficient respect for and enforcement of patents, most notably relating to biopharmaceuticals". They identified the trade and investment relationship as a "top priority" ahead of the September 22 inaugural meeting of the US-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.   But IPA secretary general DG Shah said that what the US is demanding of India exceeds the US's own regulations. "The USA is pressurising India to provide what is not in their own law," Shah wrote to Sitharaman.