US big pharma to sue India?

The big US pharmaceutical companies are not happy. 

India is planning on making more generic drugs, you can read the whole story here, but some of it is bloody utterly horrifying, especially with Obama pressuring the Pacific and Atlantic countries to agree to his trade agreements. In the Pacific the TPP. What is worrying everyone is just this sort of thing, where US pharmaceutical companies can sue a gov over lost money. In fact this is India's big worry about introducing more cheap generic medicines for it's population. Well ours too I guess, as the PBS here does save a lot of money by buying generics from overseas.

The U.S. International Trade Commission said in August that it would investigate “Indian policies that discriminate against U.S. trade and investment” at the request of the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance. Trade Relationship 

“What the Indian government is really worried about is the court cases that will follow from drug companies,” Menghaney said. “It’s worried about the international criticism it will face from developed country governments who back their pharmaceutical companies, and the impact it will have on the India-U.S. relationship.” 

Roche decided not to pursue Indian patents for its breast cancer medicine Herceptin because of the Indian intellectual property environment, the company said in an e-mailed statement in August. It introduced a lower-cost Herceptin packaged by a local drug company for the Indian market in 2012. Under India’s patent laws, compulsory licenses can be awarded for some products still under patent if the original isn’t available locally at a reasonable price. 

Natco Pharma Ltd. (NTCPH) applied directly to India’s patents office and was awarded the nation’s first compulsory license in March 2012 to make a copy of Bayer’s Nexavar cancer drug at a 97 percent discount to the original product. In March last year, Bayer lost its bid to stop Natco from making the generic drug and is appealing the decision at the Mumbai High Court. 

Bayer Chief Executive Officer Marijn Dekkers called the compulsory license “essentially theft.” 

“We did not develop this medicine for Indians,” Dekkers said Dec. 3. “We developed it for western patients who can afford it.” more

My highlighting. 

This is happening now. WTF would these big companies do to our PBS then if they got the chance?