Patent Battles: The Way Ahead -II

In continuation to my previous post related to patent battle, herein the effort is made to review the situation in India. The patent scenario in India is also changing to be at par with other so called advanced or highly regulated market, especially in pharmaceutical sector.

With the implementation of Product patent regime and honoring the importance of adequate patent protection life, India is on track to see a major change in pharmaceutical scenario. Further, the efforts are being carried out to implement data protection, as outlined by Satwant reddy committee report. These developments are strong indicators of changing winds in Pharmaceutical sector in India. It’s only a matter of time, for Pharmaceutical Industry in India, to witness a high number of patent litigations.

The forecast of high number of patent litigation is based only on desire of pharmaceutical companies to capture the untapped market due to the pressure for ever increasing profits at pharmaceutical companies. The capability of Indian companies to capture lucrative markets of US and Europe is well proven. Therefore, this battle, when fought at their own backyard, i.e. in India, appears to be far more brutal. India, being a country of vast population and legislation offering or attempting to offer adequate Intellectual protection is certainly a big pharmaceutical market of future.

Once it is accepted that, even in India, which has moved a long way from process development, there would be a large number of patent litigations, the future pharmaceutical market would be governed by litigations, then obviously the next big question which comes in mind is that whether our judiciary system is capable of handling such a huge task?

In India, where normal civil and criminal cases take unwarranted time to dispose, the future of patent litigations, involving technical subject matter is ambiguous. The existing infra structure and corrupt system only adds to this ambiguity.

Therefore, whether Indian Legal System as well as Health Regulatory System would be able to cope with the demands of future would need to be seen.

If we look at China, a neighboring Country, the Pharmaceutical industry picture is clearly depicting a birth of another giant. China, similar to India, has huge population and therefore, remains to be a big Pharmaceutical market.

Chinese legal system has already shown to the world their preparedness about Health issues. The recent Judgment of Beijing court slamming the death penalty to Zheng Xiaoyu, who was found guilty for taking over $850,000 worth of bribes in the form of cash and gifts when inappropriately approving hundreds of drugs and medical devices, at least six of which proved to be fake is clear indicators of strong pharmaceutical environment.

Whether there would be any stringent and/or bold decision in Indian scenario would need to be wait and watched.

In an effort to mimic regulated countries atmosphere for IP issues, how far India, China or similar countries like Brazil could go would determine, which would be the Best Pharmaceutical market of twenty-first century.