Do We Need Patent Term Extension And Non-Patent Exclusivities For Pharmaceuticals?

India, though in a phase of rapid economic development, still has the bane of poverty. In this country, around 22% of the population is Below the Poverty Line ¹, and hence most of the nation's policies are oriented towards the poor. India's IP Policy is no different, as the IP legislature in India is mostly oriented towards giving the general public an easy and inexpensive access to medicines. Indian IP policy drafters have used every flexibility in the Agreement on the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), to which India is a signatory, for this purpose.

The curious case of drug development

The process of development of the drugs to treat the diseases and ailments is pretty much painstaking. A drug regulatory authority, (e.g. The US Food and Drug Administration-US FDA; Central Drugs Standard Control Organization-CDSCO in India) monitors and governs the testing of the New Chemical Entities (NCEs) through pre-clinical and clinical trials to