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Indian Pharmaceutical Companies and Accessibility of Drugs under TRIPS

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Commercialization of Health Care

Part of the book series: Social Policy in a Development Context ((SPDC))

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Abstract

Before the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as the new permanent international trade organization, individual countries had the freedom to have their own patent laws. India was one of the countries which introduced a new patent law: the British Patents and Designs Act, 1911 was replaced by the Patents Act, 1970. The most striking feature of the new law was that it abolished product patents in drugs (and food). India had a long tradition of drug manufacturing. But the full potential could not be realized because of the constraints imposed by the Patents Act of 1911. The multinational corporations (MNCs) holding the drug patents used the then existing patent law to prevent the Indian generic companies from producing the new drugs.

I would like to thank the participants in workshops at Geneva (3–5 March 2003) and Helsinki (15–17 March 2004) for helpful discussions; also Meri Koivusalo and particularly Maureen Mackintosh for detailed comments on earlier versions of this paper.

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© 2005 United Nations Research Institute for Social Development

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Chaudhuri, S. (2005). Indian Pharmaceutical Companies and Accessibility of Drugs under TRIPS. In: Mackintosh, M., Koivusalo, M. (eds) Commercialization of Health Care. Social Policy in a Development Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523616_10

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