More that 85% of the currently available drugs are going out of patent or are out of patent, therefore India has much go gain from the generic drug industry |
Dr Anand Kumar
Astra Zeneca Foundation (India) |
But the bitter pill for India's pharmaceutical industry, which is the biggest generic drug producer in the world, will come if the next part of the bill goes through parliament.
It includes new laws giving full patent protection to drugs, conforming with World Trade Organisation (WTO) obligations to observe international laws from 2005.
Generic headache
Currently, India recognises patents protecting the way a drug is made but not the drug itself, allowing local firms to copy drugs patented in the West as long as they use a different process.
"The minister said the pharma industry needs to come out of its reverse engineering mode and move forward into the research and development mode," Dr Anand Kumar of the Astra Zeneca Foundation in India told the BBC's World Business Report.
"He also said that India is emerging as the new leader for the knowledge based drug industry and that we should protect our interests," he said.
Many global pharmaceutical firms have been holding back investments in India due to the lack of strong patent laws.
Earnings high
Generics are the drug makers main source of revenue because of the cheap labour and research costs and strong exports.
"More that 85% of the currently available drugs are going out of patent or are out of patent, therefore India has much to gain from the generic drug industry," said Dr Kumar.
Analysts expected the strong earnings to continue despite the new laws.
Indian companies have been targeting the lucrative US generic market, where drugs with combined annual sales of about $47bn lose their patent by 2005.
I suppose they could still pony up the 65 cents per, just to keep it fair.
“If they won’t respect US intellectual property, we need to establish trade sanctions against them.”
Kinda like we do with China?
10% of Brazil’s military budget would pay for the drug for all AIDS patients in Brazil.
“What a bunch of thugs. If they won’t respect US intellectual property, we need to establish trade sanctions against them.”
You need to read about compulsory licenses. Their legal and we have them in the United States too.
Do a Google search on +”compulsory license” +wiki...
Why the big discount to Thailand? Did they permit unrestricted trials of the drug during the development period?
Only conservatives are held to the rule of law.
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