Domestic contours of global regulation: Understanding the policy changes on pharmaceutical patents in India and Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACT The last two decades saw sweeping changes in the pharmaceutical patent policies of the developing countries from weak/non patentability to strong patent regimes. Analysing the policy change from a political economy approach, this paper pursues two simultaneous objectives. Firstly, it explores the common factors underlying the recent changes in the pharmaceutical patent policies of the developing countries. Secondly, it analyses the sources of the differential policy outcomes on pharmaceutical patents in India and Turkey. Against the state-centric theories that interpret the policy change primarily as a matter between the nation states from developed and developing countries, the paper presents two arguments. Firstly, it argues that the increased structural power of the transnational capital has been the common factor underlying the recent changes in the pharmaceutical patent policies of the developing countries. Secondly, it argues that the nature, scope, and outcomes policy processes on pharmaceutical patents have been shaped by the dynamics of the inter class struggles across the developing world. The paper supports this latter argument through a focussed comparative historical analysis of the public policy processes and outcomes on pharmaceutical patents in Turkey and India.