Effects on Pharmaceutical Industries by Post Patent Amendment Act, 2005

Pharmaceutical industries are one of the major industries in India. They were popularly known for their ‘Reverse engineering process’ that is to say they used to decipher the product by different process and produce the generic version of the previous patented product. Before, Patent Amendment Act, 2005 as there was no product patent in India so, these pharmaceutical industries were able to produce the generic versions of the product. But after this 2005 amendment, product patent was introduced in the Act and with the advent of this product patent; it became difficult for them to produce the generic versions. As a result they were left with only two options, first either they can opt for voluntary license or they can opt for compulsory license. But generally the MNC’s resists themselves in giving voluntary license to generic companies as a result there was a huge problem being faced by these generic companies. The concept of compulsory license existed in the patent act from very beginning but none of the companies were able to acquire the same.
Compulsory license has been dealt under section 84 of the Patent Act, 1970. The requirements for grant of the same are: That after expiration of 3 years from grant of Patents can apply for compulsory license on following grounds-
1. That the reasonable requirements of the public are not being satisfied
2. That the invention is not available to the public at large
3 that it is not worked in the territory of India
After the latest amendment made to Patent Act in 2005, the first case of grant of compulsory license was Natco i.e. Natco v Bayer. As it was a case related to some life saving drugs which was available in the market at exorbitantly high prices therefore, Natco one of the generic pharmaceutical company applied for compulsory license and it has been granted the same by the court.
Therefore, in my opinion in case of life saving drugs/medicines, compulsory licenses should be given to these generic companies so that the poor masses can easily purchase the same as one of the object of Patent law is also public welfare i.e in the interest of general public specially for the weaker sections of the society who are unable to buy these medicines at high price, it is always advisable to acquire compulsory license from the controller of Patents office. Thus, the legal formalities or the complex procedure for grant of compulsory license should be simplified in order to make these medicines accessible to general public at large.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher As: Critical Pedagogue

ROLE CONFLICT PROBLEM AMONG WORKING WOMEN

Rights and obligations of Issuer, Participant and Beneficial owner under the Depository Act, 1996