The Indian pharmaceutical, life sciences and biotechnology companies are continuously growing and evolving accompanied by the technological advancements. Pharmaceutical contributes significantly to India’s GDP as India is in the forefront for not only producing cheaper medicines for the domestic market of the country but also for the entire world. That is why Indian Pharmaceutical Industry is known as ‘the pharmacy of the world’. There was a time when the pharma industry of India largely depended on the imports for its domestic fulfillment. But after the patent law of 1970, which was primarily based on recommendations of Justice Ayyangar, the pharma marketing in India changed the Indian pharmaceutical industry and it learned to anchor its own ship.

The 1970 patent law  

At that time, a large number of countries, including the USA followed the patent law. As per the law in the USA, medicines were given patent for 20 years from the date of application and most of the years in this 20 years period were spent carrying out clinical trials to get final approval for the drug. The originator pharma company is granted exclusivity of marketing rights during this term of the patent. Any other company cannot manufacture or sell any of these medicines. The patented medication is administered by medical professionals as per its brand name. In the US as the patent term reaches expiry, numerous pharmaceutical firms are asking the Food and Drug Administration for approval to develop and sell the licensed medication under a generic name. Conversely, the Indian patent law did not require product patenting. Alternatively it allowed processes to be patented. This law made reverse engineering departments concentrate on designing and/or formulating a drug. Since there was no monopoly grant, any firm could manufacture or formulate a drug. This is permitted to mark those formulations. Doctors may prescribe them as mark names. Economic constraints, comparatively much lower reverse engineering costs, had held certain brands’ prices much lower compared to certain in Western countries.

In 1995 India signed TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of the Rights of Intellectual Property). India amended the patent law in 2005, and it introduced product patents in the country. Even today, the Act is balanced by a mandatory licensing provision which makes India ‘s citizens ultimate beneficiaries. The introduction of patent protection for pharmaceutical products changed ground rules for Indians in January 2005

Enterprises. Since the Pharma marketing in India and Indian Pharma has been evolving. R&D Departments detach themselves from reverse engineering and support the development of new drug delivery technologies and discovery research. The experience in selling generics on the foreign market is expected to hold India steady to market its own branded products to the future markets      

Therefore, the patents law led to an increase in manufacturing of drugs and generics and eventually India became the country to hold most of the  medicines, drugs and vaccine materials. India remains an important market for the vast majority of Indian companies. The indigenous industry supplies around 70% of the country‘s pharmaceuticals.