Admittedly, its a loaded question, but the results are interesting. At the time of going to press, 64 per cent had voted against the motion. This is reflected in the comments expressed by thought leaders from industry within this Anniversary issue, as well as some legal eagles but every point they argue finds its counterpoint from stakeholders on the other side of the fence.
If there is a consensus, it is that recent cases and decisions have resulted in a much-needed debate on Indian patent law: its interpretation and boundaries, pros and cons.
While Ranjit Shahani from OPPI/Novartis says that the country’s patent law has miles to go before it can protect innovation, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw from Biocon makes the point that we should be nurturing innovation that “makes a difference”, which is only possible if we have “an enabling ecosystem”.
Leena Menghaney, Médecins Sans Frontières in fact thinks that the answer may lie beyond the Patent Act, in “an innovation policy that is much wider than simply a Patent Act”.
The legal eagles have argued on both sides, with Anay Shukla from Nishith Desai Associates stating that the Indian patent law has failed to promote and nurture innovation due to operational issues (such as the delays in the examination process, which is a separate story in itself, one we’ve covered in the Market Cover story of this issue: The patent pileup’) as well as the threat of compulsory licenses and lack of data exclusivity.
But these are the features celebrated by their legal counterparts on the other side of the fence. As a perfect counterpoint, Raghu Cidambi, Advisor, Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance says that India’s Patent Act does not allow monopolies and no protest against striking a balance between public and private interest is justified. Prof Raghavendra Lal Saha who is the Chairman of the IPR committee, of the Ministry of MSME, Government of India too advocates the “strong public policy element “ of patent law.
Dr Gopakumar G Nair of GNAs, another legal guru, emphasises the value of provisions under Section 3 of the Indian Patent Law as they discourage the “art of ever-greening” by distinguishing true innovation from ‘prior art’, frivolous or undeserving claims.
But there is no escaping the fact that we still do not have the ecosystem to reap the benefits of our own patent law. India has placed the “cart before the horse” analyses Reji K Joseph, by bringing in a product patent era before the drug innovation system could truly gets its act together. Joseph, as a consultant with Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), Government of India think tank, lists three main gaps: lack of required human skills, science and technology and financing, among others. His analysis seems to be borne out by the fact that after the initial spurt in R&D spend of pharma companies in the early years of the last decade, there has been a stagnation.
Express Pharma was launched as the weekly Express Pharma Pulse in November 1994. Now a fortnightly, the publication has seen both the process patent era as well as the transition pains to a TRIPS- compliant regime. We hope to continue to reflect the evolving dynamics of this sector, even while we evolve ourselves. We revamped our website a couple of months back and with this issue, readers will note changes in the print issue’s layout and visual elements as well. Do let us have your feedback as we continue to evolve along with the industry.
Viveka Roychowdhury
Editor