Access to Medicines and Performance of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: Examining India’s Experience in the New Patent Regime¹

Abstract

The advocates of intellectual property rights project strong patent regime as an effective way to promote research and development (R&D) activities leading to innovation while others argue that they may adversely affect local industries in developing countries and result in monopoly pricing that may compromise on larger interests including public healthcare. The process patent regime has enabled Indian pharmaceutical firms to strengthen their technological capability and performance in domestic and global markets. As the country reintroduced product patent protection in 2005, Indian ‘copycats’ could not follow their reverse engineering technology anymore. Being a developing country and ‘pharmacy of the Global South’, India’s experience offers global dimensions to these debates. This article makes an attempt to reflect on India’s experience with the new patent regime; it looks into the pattern of R&D, trade and trend of product patenting in the pharmaceutical sector and revisits public health concerns.