(This story originally appeared in on Apr 28, 2016)

MUMBAI: United States Trade Representative's 2016 'Special 301 Report' targeting countries including India, by putting these on a 'priority watch list' has been criticized by health activists, saying any change in India's patent laws will restrict the country's ability to produce affordable medicines.India remains on the Priority Watch List, and continues to be singled out for what the USTR considers to be inadequate protection of intellectual property for its pharmaceutical industry, they say.India is the world's principal producer and supplier of quality generic medicines, including for US-funded treatment programmes like PEPFAR that support antiretroviral treatment in developing countries, while two-thirds of all drugs procured for international medical aid to treat HIV, TB and malaria come from here.The 301 Report clearly attacks section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act and the fact that through the application of a stricter patentability standard, a number of evergreening claims have been denied patent protection. The 301 Report states "the United States also continues to monitor India's application of its compulsory licensing law".Yet India's laws and policies, promote generic competition and limit abusive pharmaceutical industry practices, including patent 'evergreening', are entirely compliant with WTO trade rules, international medical humanitarian agency, MSF said in a statement."India's stance is that the current patent regime is fully TRIPs compliant and strikes the appropriate balance between the grant of monopoly patent rights and public health imperatives", Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance director general DG Shah told TOI earlier.In response to a parliamentary question, Union Minister commerce and industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, made a statement recently regarding the USTR report, "The Special 301 Report is a unilateral measure to create pressure on countries to enhance IPR protection beyond the TRIPS agreement. Under the WTO regime, any dispute between two countries needs to be referred to the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO and unilateral actions are not tenable under this regime.Special 301 which is an extra-territorial application of the domestic law of a country is inconsistent with the established norms of the WTO. The government is committed to fully utilizing all the flexibilities provided under the TRIPS agreement to protect domestic pharmaceutical sector from pressure exerted by the foreign countries."It's clear India will keep facing intense pressure to undermine its role as 'pharmacy of the developing world', the statement adds. In June 2015, MSF launched a campaign "Hands Off Our Meds" to urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stand strong in the face of intensifying pressure from US to change India's laws in ways that would severely restrict the country's ability to produce affordable medicines.Over the past two years, pressure has been built up on the agency that administers IP laws and policy - the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion to ensure stringent IP enforcement, fast track examination of patent claims of its companies and a moratorium on compulsory licensing, the statement adds.There has also been intense US scrutiny of the Indian judiciary of its handling of patent disputes including its decisions on patentability (Novartis vs. Union of India), compulsory licensing (Bayer Corporation vs. Union of India), and finally on any failure to secure injunctions to shut down generic competition.Many US industries, in particular the pharmaceutical industry, use the report to condemn and pressure governments which employ IP systems that do not match US intellectual property laws and practices.The 301 report comes amidst growing criticism in the US itself of an ever-upward spiralling of drug prices for products protected by lengthy IP monopolies, which threaten people's access to treatment and sustainability of health services.Existing US intellectual property laws enable drug makers to charge exorbitant prices for medicines, such as Gilead Sciences, which charge up to $1,000 a pill for new hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir.