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Indian drug-makers seek protection from imminent patent regime

The Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association and experts on patent-related laws today urged the government to incorporate adequate safeguards in the proposed Patent Amendment Bill to protect the interests of the common man and the domestic pharmaceutical industry.

IDMA president Dinesh Patel told newspersons in New Delhi that with the introduction of product patent after the expiry of the transition period in 2005, prices of medicines including life-saving drugs would skyrocket with the multi-national companies enjoying a monopoly. ''This will subject the common man to a lot of hardship,'' he said.

Patel said developing countries like India should have the right to provide for automatic grant of non-voluntary licences in sectors like food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.

Veda Raman, author of the Indian Patent Act, 1970, which is now sought to be amended, said the provision of automatic licence of right in the Act should be retained and made applicable to exclusive marketing rights.

Patel said IDMA members together met about 85 per cent of the country's demand for bulk drugs and about 60 per cent of formulations.

Patel stressed that EMR applications should be subject to a detailed scrutiny by the patent office for novelty. Criticising the system of 'mail boxes' to receive EMR applications, he said the word 'product' for the box should be defined as a new chemical entity. He also demanded that mail box applications for EMR be restricted to post-January 1995 inventions.

He demanded that there should be no uniform standard for patent duration. ''The developing countries should be free to set the duration at a level significantly lower than that of the industrialised countries in accordance with their own technological and public interest needs. The developing countries should also be free to exclude food, pharmaceuticals and chemicals from patentability,'' he felt.

Justice Rajinder Sachar, former CJ of Delhi high court and secretary of People's Committee on GATT, said low-cost medicines were essential for developing countries. Right to health emanated from the right to life which is a fundamental right, he said. ''No international obligation can override our fundamental rights.'' Domestic companies must be able to play a role in the new GATT regime, he said.

The IDMA also criticised suggestions from some quarters to introduce patent law changes immediately forgoing the transition period upto 2005, saying it would not be in the national interest.

UNI