1) India’s Membership at the World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization was founded in the year 1995. 1 India became a member of the WTO at its
inception and hence bound by the various multilateral agreements. One such agreement was the
Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). 2 As per Article 27 of the
TRIPs, there should not be any discrimination in the subject matter of inventions patentable. 3 Therefore,
India could not discriminate between pharmaceutical products and other products by providing limited
patents (process patent) for the former. Owing to the developing nature of India, it was granted grace
period of ten years to accommodate its patent law as per the stipulation of TRIPs. 4

The Indian pharmaceutical industry assumes an enormous job in moulding the global economy. In the
present day, it is the third largest in volume. 5 Furthermore, as of 2010, it delivered roughly 20% of the
global generic drugs.6 The compass of the pharmaceutical business in not simply limited to the national
boundary. India has been announced as the best provider of reasonable medical supplies and other
medicinal services items worth $741 million to the United Nations' body, UNICEF. 7 Such enormous stir
in the pharmaceutical industry can be attributed to liberalization of patent law in India. The paper seeks to
analyse these changes in law and its impact on the market. Part I of the paper traces the evolution of the
pharmaceutical patent regime as it exists today, Part II of the paper discusses the effect of these changes
on price and quantity of drugs and Part III of the paper analyses these effects against the positive
outcomes of the changes. Finally, Part IV concludes the paper.

1 WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, Members and Observers, available at

https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org6_e.htm, <last visited 21 st April, 2019>.

2 TRIPS: Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh
Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 1C, 1869 U.N.T.S. 299 (1994) [‘TRIPS Agreement’]

3 TRIPS Agreement, Art. 27.

4 ibid.

5 MV. Ramasurya, Pharmaceuticals, Engineering to Topple Info Tech as Big Paymaster, THE ECONOMIC TIMES,
May 10, 2012. available at http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-06-08/news/28423319_1_salaryhikes-
manufacturing-sector-survey.

6 N. Lalitha, Access to Indian Generic Drugs: Emerging Issues, IP, PHARMACEUTICALS AND PUBLIC HEALTH:
ACCESS TO DRUGS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 143, K. C. Shadlen (ed.) 2011.

7 ibid.