Pharmaceutical Patents, Prices and Welfare Losses: Policy Options for India Under the WTO TRIPS Agreement

Abstract

C ONCERNS on the effect of product patents on the prices of medicines have been acute in many developing countries which, up to the entry into force of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) in 1995, could and did disallow such patenting in their national patent laws. With TRIPS, all Members of (and those seeking accession to) the WTO, have to make available, with limited exceptions, both product and process patents in every sector, including pharmaceuticals. More specifically, TRIPS provides that all WTO members have to receive product patent applications for pharmaceuticals from the date of establishment of the WTO, i.e. January, 1995. It is important to note that even under the TRIPS regime, patents are to be granted only on applications received from 1995 onwards for new, patentable pharmaceutical inventions. Thus, prices of existing pharmaceuticals already on the market, or even those covered by patent