Challenges to Patent Laws Related to Pharmaceutical Innovations at International Level

Examining the Impact of Patent Laws on the Availability and Affordability of Life-Saving Drugs

Abstract

Patents are the legal protection for inventions, including new medicines discovered by research-based pharmaceutical companies. In return for such protection, a patent-holder discloses to the world patented research and science underlying the invention. Pharmaceutical products are currently not granted patent protection under Indian law. India had a product patent regime for all inventions under the Patents and Designs Act 1911.Thus, under our existing Patent laws, molecules, which are products of chemical reactions, are as such non-patentable in India. The term of an innovation patent is eight years from its effective filing date (Section 68, Patents Act). Annual renewal fees are payable from the fourth anniversary of the filing date for a standard patent and from the second anniversary for an innovation patent. Pharmaceutical companies have the ability to develop new drugs that can prolong life and provide cures to diseases that affect people worldwide. Patents are especially important to these drug companies because they can guarantee profit and make all the time and cost put into developing their new drug worthwhile. In the United States, the Patent Protection process as it relates to the drug industry has been distorted by the political system, intense lobbying and large campaign contributions. The result has been pricing contrary to the greater good of the nation. Millions of people mostly in developing countries lack access to life-saving drugs. Patents can put a dramatic impact on access to medicines when they are used to prevent competition. Thus a patent is a monopoly right granted to a person who has invented a new and useful article or a new process of making an article. In this Article the researcher has probed the limitations and expectations of Patent Laws at International level as it is now a worldwide issue especially in case of life saving drugs.