-The Times of India A paragraph buried in the US-India joint statement, which talks of establishing an annual high-level Intellectual Property (IP) working group as part of the Trade Policy Forum, has made health activists across the world apprehensive that the Modi government might be bending to US pressure to change its patent laws. Several health policy experts and activists have issued statements urging India not to give in to US...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government plans to come out with a policy on intellectual property rights (IPR) within a few months, with developed nations such as the US and the EU raising concerns over the country's patent rules. "India does not have an IPR Policy. This is the first time we are coming out with a policy. IPR Policy issues have been hanging fire for quite a long time," commerce and...

-The Hindu Differences over intellectual property rights (IPRs) have emerged as a strong undercurrent in India's economic relations with the U.S. The attempt by the influential pharmaceutical lobby to stymie India's efforts to ensure the supply of medicines at affordable rates without violating existing treaty commitments, requires a principled response from New Delhi. At the core of the issue is what Columbia University Professor Arvind Panagariya calls "the hijacking of...

-The Indian Express India is no insecure dictatorship junking international obligations for cheap populism. The highest court of the world's largest democracy has made a nuanced distinction between real innovation and marketing gimmickry. Yet, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis's response to the recent Supreme Court verdict in Novartis vs Union of India has been imperial in tone. The judgment "discourages innovative drug discovery", it claimed. It accused Indian law of lagging...

India is coming under increasing pressure from the U.S. and the European Union for the strict patentability criteria it applies for medicines. AS was only to be expected, the two landmark decisions made by the Indian patent office in recent times concerning pharmaceutical patent cases have not gone down well with the multinational drug industry. First, there was the rejection in 2006 of the patent application by the Swiss multinational...