SpicyIP Review
SPICY IP:
An article entitled “Intellectual Property Rights and the Challenges Faced by the Pharmaceutical Industry” published in SCC journal in 2004 by the sitting Supreme Court Judge and the then Acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Justice Markandey Katju was brought to my notice sometime back.
The purpose of Justice Katju’s literary exercise appears to have been two-fold- (a) to explain the imperatives which required the Indian legislature to amend the Patents Act in 2005 pursuant to its obligations as a signatory to TRIPS and as a member of the WTO, and (b) to convey, what he perceived to be. the possible denouements of the same, particularly in the context of the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
As a prodrome to this, he begins by dwelling upon the building blocks of IPR, the concept of quid pro quo and its jurisprudence. He then wonders at the irony that Newton and Darwin should go unrewarded for their momentous discoveries. Following this, Justice Katju does a bit of number crunching on the state of affairs in the Pharma industry as prevalent in 2004. According to the article:
“At present (meaning 2004) the Indian pharmaceutical industry has about 300 large units, 1700 medium-size units and about 8000 small-scale units throughout the country. The total turnover of these units in 2002-03 was about Rs 26,000 crores, and exports were worth about Rs 10,000 crores.”
For the latest statistics, see here. In the article, Justice Katju has sought for measures to forfend public interest simultaneously fulfilling international obligations. Probably, at this point in the article Justice Katju was reminded of Adam Smith’s caveat to governments cautioning them against private businesses hijacking public interest (Interestingly, this comes from a person whose seminal work is considered to be the Bible of capitalism) :
“Seldom meet together, even for merriment and…