At the occasion of Novartis General Assembly on 22 February 2011, the Berne Declaration made a public call in front of the 2160 shareholders of the company present, asking once more the Swiss pharma giant to put an end to the legal actions it has been undertaking in India for the past 5 years regarding the patenting of the anticancer drug Glivec.

In an Open Letter sent simultaneously to Novartis’ President, Dr. Vasella, the Berne Declaration (BD), joined by Health Action International (HAI) Europe, HAI Africa, HAI Asia Pacific, Third World Network and Knowledge Ecology International, have urged Novartis to drop the case and called on the company to refrain from influencing the government of India to introduce laws and policies that would hinder access to medicine, as these issues are being negotiated in the framework of bilateral free-trade agreements between India and the European Union, and the European Free Trade Association.