Research Topic

ECONOMICS OF PATENTS IN THE INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR:
This research attempts to investigate changes in patent reforms in the context of Indian pharmaceutical industry. The objective is to assess changes in patenting, patent protection and the evolving new patent regime in India and other developed or developing countries. In the backdrop of reforms over past two decades, the transformations in patenting systems have triggered changes across the globe thereby leading many countries to adopt strong patent regimes. These reforms have been widely perceived to strengthen patent protection particularly in areas of enforceability and duration. Theoretically, the standard economic rationale for granting patents is to protect potential innovators from imitation thereby giving them the incentive to incur the cost of innovation. In the Indian context, the introduction of new patent regime under the TRIPS agreement in 2005 had marked tremendous changes in the growth of Indian Pharmaceuticals industry. To investigate the impact of reforms, the study attempts to conducts a firm level analysis to determine patent propensity and to identify the factors that contribute to patenting. The empirical analysis is proposed to be carried out by using secondary data on pharmaceutical firms and research institutes in India.