Investigating and Analysing the Effects of Product Patents on Innovation and Drug Prices on the Pharmaceutical Industry in India

Abstract

This research paper aims to thoroughly analyse the effects of product patents on innovation and drug prices in the pharmaceutical industry in India. In compliance with the 1995 Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), India switched to using product patents for its pharmaceutical industry [1]. Before that, the government used process patents that allowed drug developers to only patent the drug’s manufacturing process rather than the drug itself. This law made them prone to techniques like reverse engineering that could reduce their return on investment on the development of the drug as competitors could sell them for cheaper due to lower development costs [2]. This paper delves deeper into how the introduction of product patents might have impacted the average prices of drugs and innovation in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, it also highlights the potential and actual effects of product patents on the average prices of the drugs. The overall findings conclude that while product patents are impactful to some extent on innovation and drug prices in the pharmaceutical industry, the impact is not as prominent in the case of India. For this research, I initially narrowed its scope to a specific country, industry and the factors influenced by product patents. I started my research by reading more on this topic in general by going through articles and websites of WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation), Indian patent office, World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Intellectual property India etc. Then I thoroughly read and gained more knowledge on each section individually. The majority of the specific patent data and trends were gathered from research papers written by credible industry experts to ensure reliability. For this research, I initially narrowed its scope to a specific country, industry and the factors influenced by product patents. I started my research by reading more on this topic in general by going through articles and websites of WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organisation), Indian patent office, World Trade Organisation (WTO) and Intellectual property India etc. Then I thoroughly read and gained more knowledge on each section individually. The majority of the specific patent data and trends were gathered from research papers written by credible industry experts to ensure reliability.