Pre TRIPS, Post TRIPS Patent Regime and the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The legal protection to intellectual property is available in India since British rule. The British law regarding protection of intellectual property was wide and encompassing. The British law provided highest degree of protection to the pharmaceutical industry; however this also led to very high prices of medicines in India. To provide cheap medicine and to promote Indian pharmaceutical Industry, Indian Patent Act (1970) was implemented in India it allowed process patent for pharmaceutical Industry. The law was later amended to fulfill the mandatory requirements of WTO and TRIPS. The changes in law caused paradigm shift in the business of Indian pharmaceutical industry. The present paper is an attempt to find how the change in law has impacted the Indian pharmaceutical industry. The present paper is based on Secondary data taken from annual reports of pharmaceutical Industries Aurbindo, Cipla, Lupin, Ranbaxy, Dabur. The technique of GAP analysis has been used to compare the financial position of Indian pharmaceutical companies in PRE TRIPS period and POST TRIPS period SPSS package has also been used to analyze the data. The results of the study indicate that there is overall improvement in financial position of Indian pharmaceutical companies in POST TRIPS period. The improvement is due to more spending in R&D activities and strengthening of their core competencies. The study provides an insight to the position of Indian pharmaceutical industry in the present legal scenario.