Compulsory Licensing For Public Health And USA’s Special 301 Pressure: An Indian Experience

The TRIPS Agreement concluded with a win-win situation where both the developed and developing countries could incorporate their supportive provisions. But the inclusion of a broad compulsory licensing provision, which is a supportive provision for the developing countries, was against the wishes of United States which was always against any form of restrictions on the rights of the patentee. In order to achieve its aims which it had failed in the TRIPS Agreement, USA began to use its new strategy to prevent countries from using this TRIPS flexibility, by the threat of trade retaliations through Special 301 Report. India being one of the victims of US strategy had many a times faced this intimidation from USA. The researcher has thoroughly analysed the Indian position in the Special 301 Report till 2018. Also, the researcher scrutinized the effect such an act on India and how the Indian Government responded to such situation. The researcher could found that such unwelcomed behaviour on the part of the luring market in the world had affected the public health and access to patented life saving drugs in India. Any such activity is in violation of principles embodied in the TRIPS Agreement and similar international commitments and also against the basic human right to health. The researcher suggests for a strong protest against such activities either by putting the matter before WTO-DSB or by forming a regional collaboration with other similarly affected countries and take retaliatory action against US.