-The Economic Times A growing number of countries are adopting India's intellectual property regulations, which give enough flexibility to local companies to produce generic versions of popular drugs to safeguard public health. Although multinational companies have criticised India for being lax in enforcing intellectual property (IP) laws, countries such as China, Argentina and the Philippines are adopting similar provisions. Last month, China amended its IP laws, allowing local companies to produce low-cost versions...

It is said that only God and a few good men and women run India. One such man is P H Kurien. For readers unfamiliar with his name, Kurien was India's Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks until March 12, 2012. On March 9, 2012, just three days before he left office, he issued the first-ever compulsory licence in India for the manufacture of a drug still under patent....

German drugmaker bayer AG has demanded the withdrawal of the country's first compulsory licence given to Natco Pharma, arguing that a three-fourth reduction in the price of the anti-cancer drug by another Indian firm has made the permit redundant and its patent itself is vulnerable to being revoked. In March, India allowed Natco Pharma to legally make and sell a low-cost version of cancer drug Nexavar at 3% of the original...

Health activists and cancer patients in the US have pounced on Swiss drug multinational Novartis for the high price of its famous, multi-billion dollar anti-cancer drug Glivec, a development which challenges pharma MNCs' claims of cheap access and affordability for patented drugs. Such protests, which began first in Europe, and have now spread to the US, could make it more difficult for pharma MNCs in developing countries to convince sceptical governments...

-The Hindu Business Line The onus of granting approvals to medicines marketed in the country is on the regulator Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), say drug companies, adding that they have adhered to the law of the land. The drug-makers were responding to a Parliamentary panel report on health that severely indicted the drug regulatory authority, besides alleging that “invisible hands” of drug-makers were involved in getting favourable reports on medicines...