The drugs that you buy from the pharmacy store in your locality may not be genuine but spurious.
Well, one has to believe if the Special 301 report of the United States Trade Representative is taken into account as the report notes that 20 per cent of the drugs available in India is spurious or counterfeit.
Raising concern over the increasing unfair trade in the country, the US says that about 20 per cent of the drugs sold in India is counterfeit, which was a potential threat to the health of the people. The report also says that the majority of the counterfeit pharmaceuticals seized at the US border were shipped from India, China and Hong Kong. The US also alleges that Indian and China are global leaders in supplying spurious drugs.
The report also says that India has no effective system to stop the unfair practice in vogue in the country. The report that focuses on intellectual property and review of notorious markets has also blamed India for this unscrupulous trade.
Noting that India remains one of the challenging economies with respect to enforcement of Intellectual property, the US points out long-standing deficiencies with respect to addressing the challenges of Intellectual Property. It also notes that issues related to patent on innovative industries were still an issue.
The US quoting a 2017 report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says that India also leads in producing and exporting counterfeit perfumes, textiles, electronics, cosmetics, electrical equipment, toys and sporting equipment.
With regard to Intellectual Property, the US report notes that only a few states such as Maharashtra and Telangana have a dedicated enforcement unit to check on Intellectual property issues. The US has called for a national level enforcement task force for this.
