This book examines the impact of economic reforms in India on the pharmaceutical industry and access to medicines. It traces the changing production and trade pattern of the industry, research and development (R&D) preferences and strategies of Indian pharmaceutical firms, patent system alongside pricing policy measures and their shortcomings. It also analyses the public health financing system in India driven largely by out-of-pocket expenditure — about 60 per cent — and characterised by very high share of medicines in total health expenditure. A masterful insight into a topical area, the work will be indispensable to those working on pharmaceutical industry and public policy. It will be of interest to researchers, scholars, students, and policy-makers of economics, industrial policy, public policy, intellectual property rights and health financing.

This book examines the impact of economic reforms in India on the pharmaceutical industry and access to medicines. It traces the changing production and trade pattern of the industry, research and development (R&D) preferences and strategies of Indian pharmaceutical firms, patent system alongside pricing policy measures and their shortcomings. It also analyses the public health financing system in India driven largely by out-of-pocket expenditure — about 60 per cent — and characterised by very high share of medicines in total health expenditure. A masterful insight into a topical area, the work will be indispensable to those working on pharmaceutical industry and public policy. It will be of interest to researchers, scholars, students, and policy-makers of economics, industrial policy, public policy, intellectual property rights and health financing.

This book explains how government support and institutional set up facilitated the evolution of the Indian pharmaceutical industry and provides an economic analysis of firm strategies due to recent policy changes. The book is useful for researchers interested in understanding the transition of a lifeline sector for an emerging economy like India. Students of public policy, health administrators and health economists who are interested in the functioning of the pharmaceutical sector that produces life saving drugs in developing nations will find this book useful. The book also provides good coverage on data envelopment analysis (DEA), a useful technique for understanding productivity and efficiency. It can provide guidance to the research students on the applicability of DEA technique to address various research questions for analysis. The book will be a valuable addition to libraries in colleges of pharmacy and medicine as well as to all other academic and research centers.

This book investigates pharmaceutical regulation and the public health issue of fake or illicit medicines in developing countries. The book analyses the evolution of pharmaceutical capitalism, showing how the entanglement of market and health interests has come to shape global regulation. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in India, Kenya, and Europe, it demonstrates how large pharmaceutical companies have used the fight against fake medicines to serve their strategic interests and protect their monopolies, sometimes to the detriment of access to medicines in developing countries. The book investigates how the contemporary dynamics of pharmaceutical power in global markets have gone on to shape societies locally, resulting in more security-oriented policies. These processes highlight the key consequences of contemporary "logistical regimes" for access to health. Providing important insights on how the flows of commodities, persons, and knowledge shape contemporary access to medicines in the developing countries, this book will be of considerable interest to policy makers and regulators, and to scholars and students across sociology, science and technology studies, global health, and development studies.

The book explores the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on nations across the globe since early 2020. It hosts a variety of perspectives within economic, social and development research studies, providing contemporary and proper information. The book also presents policy prescriptions for developing economies, critiques the system of disease surveillance and waste management, and defines a vision for India's development. It also mirrors issues related to digitisation, marginalisation, government regulations and health systems and provides original ideas for innovative methodologies suitable for higher education. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

This study analyzes the impact of the revision of the Indian Patent Act (2005) on the Indian pharmaceutical industry, which has been achieving healthy growth over the past 30 to 40 years or more. As of 2005, the Indian pharmaceutical industry was ranked as No. 4 in the world in terms of volume and 15th in terms of value. WTO/TRIPS required India to revise its patent law, however, and to introduce product patents in the pharmaceutical field. Many not only in India but also in the world had argued that the local pharmaceutical industry could deteriorate once a strong patent law (such as a product patent) was introduced. However, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has continued to develop rapidly even after the revision of the patent law in 2005. This present study started with efforts to work out the reason the Indian pharmaceutical industry successfully expanded even after the introduction of product patents. The study found that a unique article (the so-called '3-d‘) inserted in the Patent Act 2005 might have played a role in diminishing or preventing a negative impact from the introduction of a strong patent system, such as a product patents. The study also considers that a change of the business model adopted by the Indian pharmaceutical industry might have contributed to diminishing the effect of the negative impact from the introduction of a strong patent law. This study also covers recent developments in India regarding intellectual property rights and the pharmaceutical industry. One is India’s very first compulsory license granted to an Indian pharmaceutical company, Natco, against the large German pharmaceutical firm Bayer; and the second is the Supreme Court decision on Novartis’ Gleevec. The study analyzes the fundamental problems that caused these two events: access to medicine and gaps in the concept of intellectual property in the pharmaceutical industry. As possible solutions to these fundamental issues, this book explores the ideas of voluntary licensing and tiered pricing.