The NHS could be paying whopping higher prices for drugs if the UK’s £1.6billion post-Brexit trade deal with India goes ahead.
India supplies the NHS with a quarter of its medicines and changes to pharma monopoly rights and patent laws under leaked plans could see costs spiral.
Charities Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières UK are calling on International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch to withdraw the demands.
They say prolonging patents for longer than the current 20 years could see a course of cancer drugs rocket from £556 to £27,200.
Shadow Trade Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: “It is vital assurances are given that access to life-saving drugs is maintained for our NHS.”
Labour ’s Baroness Shami Chakrabarti added: “This risks India’s ability to produce life-saving medicines for millions of people around the world.”
In a letter to Ms Badenoch Mr Thomas-Symoinds added: “The Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced how the whole world’s exposure to contagious disease is interrelated,.
“Making global access to drugs is a vital matter of self-interest.”
Analysts say the trade agreement if implemented would delay generic competition from Indian suppliers for treatments for a range of conditions from HIV to heart disease.
But Ms Bdenoch said: “I will never agree any provisions that would increase the cost of medicines for our NHS. It’s services, and the cost of medicines, are not on the table.”
