INDIAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS BARRIER TO PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INVESTMENT

Abstract

The development of Pharmaceutical sector is not only important for the betterment of the health of the citizen but also for the development of the nation’s economy. In no other industry involving intellectual labor do patents play as vital a role as in the pharmaceutical industry, where reportedly the number of innovations is far less due to the absence of strong patent protection. The pharmaceutical sector has unusual importance in debates about IP policy, and has served as the salient agenda for national and international controversies about the relationship between IPRs, R&D incentives, pricing and access to drugs and knowledge. By conferring rights to the patents it provide incentives for inventors to invest in expensive and risky Research and Development. A major change in the patent laws in India was the enactment of the Patent (Amendment) Act, 2005, which made patent laws in India compliant with the TRIPS Agreement and which led to decline in innovation and research and development investment in the pharmaceutical sector. The section 3 of Indian Patent Act is considered as an obstruction for patenting invention by many global pharmaceutical industries. Compulsory Licensing have been viewed as a necessary evil, in a developing country they have also caused grave concerns in the industry due to the revenue loss that CLs tend to cause. This paper tends to observe various drawbacks in the current patent regime pertaining to pharmaceutical sector and tries to find necessary solutions for the same.