India falls into line on patents
March 18 1999 (See Nature, Volume 398, page 179; 1999)
[NEW DELHI] After a delay of more than three years, the Indian parliament finally agreed last week to amend the country's 29-year-old patent law, bringing it in line with other members of the World Trade Organization.
The bill was passed, amidst noisy protests and a walk-out by left-wing parties in the Lok Sabha (the lower house), five weeks before the 29 April deadline set by the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement body. The Rajya Sabha (the upper house) had already approved the bill.
The passage of the Patents (Amendment) Bill 1999 in both houses of parliament means that companies will soon be able to obtain exclusive marketing rights (EMRs) for drugs and agrochemicals and to apply for product patents.
But included in the bill, at the insistence of the opposition Congress party - which voted with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in favour of the bill - is a ruling that no EMRs should be given to drugs based on indigenous systems of medicines (see report on Bangalore meeting).
EMRs will be valid for five years, or until the patent application is rejected or granted, whichever comes first. The existing law in India forbids EMRs and provides for patents only on processes, not products.
Under the new law, product patents will be awarded from 1 January 2005 when the 'transition phase' comes to end and the product patent regime becomes mandatory. "More than 3,000 applications are currently in the 'mailbox' for product patents," says industry minister Sikandar Bakht.
Bakht told parliament that, although companies will benefit from EMRs, the bill contained enough safeguards on pricing, compulsory licensing and powers to revoke EMR licences in the national interest.
Protests against the bill came mainly from communist members of the lower house, who argued that the amendments were "anti-national" and a "sell-out" to multinational companies that want to destroy India's indigenous drug industry. But despite the protests, the bill was passed by 231 votes to 55.
K.S.JAYARAMAN
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Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 1999 Registered No. 785998 England.