The Impact of Patent Protection on Health Care in India and the UK. A Comparative Analysis


Book Description

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2017 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: 1, Coventry University, language: English, abstract: This research undertakes a review of available studies to conduct a critical analysis of the impact of patent protection in developing health care innovations and further on public health in India and the UK. A patent is an intellectual property right that is granted to an inventor of a product, to exclude others from manufacturing, selling, importing an invention without the permission of the inventor. It is a social contract whereby the patentee is granted a monopoly over their invention, and in return society receives innovation. Therefore, it is an incentive scheme to benefit inventors and society as a whole. There are several laws which regulate Patents, such as patent protection, increasing the life of a patent, reducing patentability standards and extending patent protection to undesirable products increase monopolies. The patent owners gain exclusive rights in the form of patents or an exclusive license, thus leading to an increase in the cost of such products. In addition, the patent owners adopt strategies to extend the scope of patent gain additional patents which protect the underlying ingredient of the medicine. Many pharmaceutical products are protected by Patents. The generic drug manufacturers in the pharmaceutical industry are affected such laws, which in turn affects the price of medicines available to patients. This creates a problem of access to affordable means of healthcare and further affects public health. Finally, the research will provide recommendations such as a framework of price control model to ensure sufficient access to medicines, and other recommendation for future of the progressing patent system of both the countries.




Patent Protection for Second Medical Uses


Book Description

When a party develops a ‘second medical use’ for a known substance or compound, special issues of patentability arise. Jurisdictions around the world vary significantly in their treatment of such claims. This detailed country-by-country analysis provides clarity, insight, and guidance on the legal issues and practical implications of second medical use claims in nineteen jurisdictions worldwide as well as the European Union. The authors of the country chapters have been carefully selected based on a broad basis of experience and in-depth knowledge about medical patents in their respective jurisdictions. Each chapter considers such issues and topics as the following: • availability of protection; • validity of claims; • scope of protection; • enforcement; and • infringement. A general chapter about the practice of the European Patent Office (EPO) addresses in particular the latest changes in the format of second medical use claims from the “Swiss-type claims” to the “EPC 2000 claims”. Specific issues and national peculiarities which deviate from the EPO practice are explained in the various national European chapters, while chapters on jurisdictions outside Europe cover both prosecution and enforcement of patents with second medical use claims. As a comparative law study and a collection of contributions from around the world on an important and controversial field, this book will prove of tremendous practical interest for the industry involved and for the public. Applicants for pharmaceutical patents, third parties, and interested legal practitioners will benefit greatly from its thorough comparative analysis and guidance. This book is the second volume in the AIPPI Law Series which has been established together with the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI).




The Indian Pharmaceutical Industry


Book Description

This study analyzes the impact of the revision of the Indian Patent Act (2005) on the Indian pharmaceutical industry, which has been achieving healthy growth over the past 30 to 40 years or more. As of 2005, the Indian pharmaceutical industry was ranked as No. 4 in the world in terms of volume and 15th in terms of value. WTO/TRIPS required India to revise its patent law, however, and to introduce product patents in the pharmaceutical field. Many not only in India but also in the world had argued that the local pharmaceutical industry could deteriorate once a strong patent law (such as a product patent) was introduced. However, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has continued to develop rapidly even after the revision of the patent law in 2005. This present study started with efforts to work out the reason the Indian pharmaceutical industry successfully expanded even after the introduction of product patents. The study found that a unique article (the so-called '3-d‘) inserted in the Patent Act 2005 might have played a role in diminishing or preventing a negative impact from the introduction of a strong patent system, such as a product patents. The study also considers that a change of the business model adopted by the Indian pharmaceutical industry might have contributed to diminishing the effect of the negative impact from the introduction of a strong patent law. This study also covers recent developments in India regarding intellectual property rights and the pharmaceutical industry. One is India’s very first compulsory license granted to an Indian pharmaceutical company, Natco, against the large German pharmaceutical firm Bayer; and the second is the Supreme Court decision on Novartis’ Gleevec. The study analyzes the fundamental problems that caused these two events: access to medicine and gaps in the concept of intellectual property in the pharmaceutical industry. As possible solutions to these fundamental issues, this book explores the ideas of voluntary licensing and tiered pricing.




Intellectual Property and Health Technologies


Book Description

Intellectual Property and Health Technologies Balancing Innovation and the Public's Health Joanna T. Brougher, Esq., MPH At first glance, ownership of intellectual property seems straightforward: the control over an invention or idea. But with the recent explosion of new scientific discoveries poised to transform public health and healthcare systems, costly and lengthy patent disputes threaten both to undermine the attempts to develop new medical technologies and to keep potentially life-saving treatments from patients who need them. Intellectual Property and Health Technologies grounds readers in patent law and explores how scientific research and enterprise are evolving in response. Geared specifically to the medical disciplines, it differentiates among forms of legal protection for inventors such as copyrights and patents, explains their limits, and argues for balance between competing forces of exclusivity and availability. Chapters delve into the major legal controversies concerning medical and biotechnologies in terms of pricing, markets, and especially the tension between innovation and access, including: The patent-eligibility of genes The patent-eligibility of medical process patents The rights and roles of universities and inventors The balancing of access, innovation, and profit in drug development The tension between biologics, small-molecule drugs, and their generic counterparts International patent law and access to medicine in the developing world As these issues continue to shape and define the debate, Intellectual Property and Health Technologies enables professionals and graduate students in public health, health policy, healthcare administration, and medicine to understand patent law and how it affects the development of medical technology and the delivery of medicine.




Innovation, Economic Development, and Intellectual Property in India and China


Book Description

This open access book analyses intellectual property codification and innovation governance in the development of six key industries in India and China. These industries are reflective of the innovation and economic development of the two economies, or of vital importance to them: the IT Industry; the film industry; the pharmaceutical industry; plant varieties and food security; the automobile industry; and peer production and the sharing economy. The analysis extends beyond the domain of IP law, and includes economics and policy analysis. The overarching concern that cuts through all chapters is an inquiry into why certain industries have developed in one country and not in the other, including: the role that state innovation policy and/or IP policy played in such development; the nature of the state innovation policy/IP policy; and whether such policy has been causal, facilitating, crippling, co-relational, or simply irrelevant. The book asks what India and China can learn from each other, and whether there is any possibility of synergy. The book provides a real-life understanding of how IP laws interact with innovation and economic development in the six selected economic sectors in China and India. The reader can also draw lessons from the success or failure of these sectors.







Balancing Wealth and Health


Book Description

"The research strategy, concepts, and methodologies developed in this book repay careful consideration not only for fruitful deployment to examine dynamics of health and intelectual property in other regions, but also for generating innovative insights in other fields of global regulatory governance"--Foreword.




Impact of TRIPS in India


Book Description

In India today only 35 percent of people have access to medicines. This book examines the rise of drug prices in India, and develops a new healthcare model, which if implemented, would extend access to medicines to India’s entire population. Sensitivity tests show that the proposed model is affordable, equitable and implementable




Intellectual Property, Pharmaceuticals and Public Health


Book Description

'This impressive collection offers fascinating new perspectives on the impact of pharmaceutical patents on access to medicines in developing countries. The volume's editors have put together an important book that sets out clearly the challenges to public health in a wide range of national contexts. The book will be a valuable text for all scholars and decision-makers interested in the global politics of intellectual property rights and public health.' – Duncan Matthews, Queen Mary, University of London, UK This up-to-date book examines pharmaceutical development, access to medicines, and the protection of public health in the context of two fundamental changes that the global political economy has undergone since the 1970s, the globalization of trade and production and the increased harmonization of national regulations on intellectual property rights. With authors from eleven different countries presenting case studies of national experiences in Africa, Asia and the Americas, the book analyzes national strategies to promote pharmaceutical innovation, while at the same time assuring widespread access to medicines through generic pharmaceutical production and generic pharmaceutical importation. The expert chapters focus on patents as well as an array of regulatory instruments, including pricing and drug registration policies. Presenting in-depth analysis and original empirical research, this book will strongly appeal to academics and students of intellectual property, international health, international political economy, international development and law.




Negotiating Health


Book Description

In developing countries, access to affordable medicines for the treatment of diseases such as AIDS and malaria remains a matter of life or death. In Africa, for instance, more than one million children die each year from malaria alone, a figure which could soon be far higher with the extension of patent rules for pharmaceuticals. Previously, access to essential medicines was made possible by the supply of much cheaper generics, manufactured largely by India; from 2005, however, the availability of these drugs is threatened as new WTO rules take effect. Halting the spread of malaria and HIV/AIDS is one of the eight Millennium Goals adopted at the UN Millennium Summit, which makes this a timely and topical book. Informed analysis is provided by internationally renowned contributors who look at the post-2005 world and discuss how action may be taken to ensure that intellectual property regimes are interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive to the right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all.