Indian Industry Seminar Discusses Patents

India's need for a strong intellectual property rights regime and a shorter transitional period before it begins have been discussed by Richard Arnold, executive vice president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, at a seminar in Delhi. India should take advantage of innovations to be rewarded by IPR "now, rather than in the next century," he said. A strong IPR regime is necessary to face new health problems, such as the resurgence of tuberculosis which has led to at least 30 million deaths.

Dr Arnold's comments came shortly before India's Patents Amendment Bill was due to return to Parliament. The bill was not adopted earlier in the Upper House because of the Opposition majority there, but passed in the Lower House (Marketletter April 10). During a short parliamentary recess, the government had failed to agree with the major Opposition parties on the bill, and rejected demands for its reference to a standing parliamentary committee. However, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs has expressed confidence that it will go through this time.

WTO "A Package Deal" Dr Arnold said the new World Trade Organization agreement's exclusive marketing right provision will mean very little, as few manufacturers will be able to recover their costs in India in the period before the new IPR regime begins. This view was shared by Pharmaceutical Producers of India president, Anil Mehta, who said that only a few drugs were expected to be introduced in the remaining two or three years of the transition. The WTO agreement is a package deal and should be evaluated in that light, he said, and urged the government to deregulate all drug prices and reward innovation in order to stimulate R&D. While R&D spending among Indian drug firms now averages 2% of turnover compared with 12%-16% in the west, he suggested that, under the new IPR regime, it could reach 6%-7% within a couple of years.