UNU-INTECH project assesses impact of TRIPS on access to medicines in developing countries

The WTO agreement on Trade Related Aspects to Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) obliges all developing countries (with the exception of the least developed countries) to apply patent protection to pharmaceutical products from 2005. In practice there are only a few developing countries that have yet to implement the necessary legislation, of which the most significant in this context is India .

The UNU-INTECH project on "Economic aspects of access to medicines after 2005", commissioned by the World Health Organization's Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Health, is a study of the impact of product patent protection on pharmaceuticals on access to medicines in developing and least developed countries.The project coordinator, Dr. Padmashree Gehl Sampath, recently completed a detailed survey of the top 100 companies in the Indian pharmaceutical industry to assess the impact of full scale TRIPS compliance on emerging firm strategies, both for R&D and marketing.

India 's experience is significant because of its current role as a producer and exporter of generic copies of brand name products patented outside India . Under the recently introduced Indian Patent Ordinance that harmonizes the Indian patent law completely with the TRIPS, new medical innovations will become patentable in India (along with other existing drugs where patent applications have been lodged in the Indian mailbox system since 1995). Under a positive case scenario, these changes might increase the incentives for Indian (and foreign) pharmaceutical companies to undertake research for the potentially large domestic market - including for diseases particularly prevalent in India and other developing countries.

It is equally likely, however, that Indian companies will no longer be able to produce generic copies of products patented elsewhere, because they are likely to be patented in India also. Some observers believe that a significant factor underlying the fall in price of brand name drugs available to institutions in developing countries has been the threat of competition from low-priced Indian exports of equivalent drugs. After 2005 this threat will no longer be there for new medicines.

Using the results of the survey, conclusions will be generated on the impact of product protection for pharmaceuticals on the pricing and business strategies of brand name and generic producers in the new environment, particularly in respect of African countries.

The study report will be finalized in April 2005.