India Should "Change The Ground Rules" On Patents

A well-known authority on patents, Heinz Redwood, has recommen ded that India should follow the example of Japan and change the ground rules in order to set off a chain reaction that would help India's drug industry to grow and encourage foreign pharmaceutical companies to invest in the country.

Delivering a keynote address at a Post-GATT - Agenda for the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry seminar, Dr Redwood said India could either stop short or follow on in the realization of pharmaceutical patent protection under TRIPS. The seminar was organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India. Over 200 representatives of the pharmaceutical industry attended the seminar.

Drawing on the example of Japan, where product patents were introduced in 1976 - resulting in a dramatic rise in Japan's world share of original development of "major global drugs," Dr Redwood said patents were only one of the reasons for this development, and that "available revenue" was another key element. By available revenue, he said he meant the sum of pretax profit and R&D expenditures. Comparing available revenue as a percentage of sales, Dr Redwood pointed out that for Japanese companies this was around 20.6%, compared with 7.4% for Indian companies. Multinational parent groups had 32% available, he said.