Home > Topics > Putting Intellectual Property to Work: Experiences from Around the World > Current IP Management Issues for Health and Agriculture in India > Editor's Summary, Implications and Best Practices

Compared to many developing countries, India has a strong science and technology base. When India gained its independence from the British Empire in 1947, many science and technology institutions already existed there. Moreover, during the past 50 years, India has made rapid strides in science through a series of policy initiatives promoting high-quality research. This chapter focuses on developments in the last few years, especially since 2005, when India became fully compliant with the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Indeed, in the past five years there has transpired an important change in science and technology primarily due to the anticipated impact of TRIPS on the IP regime of India.

India’s pharmaceutical and agricultural technology sectors are beginning to exemplify the kind of transition that developing countries around the world are seeking to achieve. The implementation of a rigorous IP rights regime and the engagement by both private sector companies and public sector research institutions in professional IP management are important drivers of this transition. Yet, intellectual property is only part of a much larger strategic effort that includes rising public and private R&D expenditures, new policies governing traditional medicines, national health and biotechnology, overhauled regulatory regimes for new drugs and biotechnologies, realigned incentives for innovation, strategic initiatives to emphasize and build on already competitive regions or technologies, and newly created governmental, research, and educational institutions.

In the pharmaceutical sector, the effects of these policies can be seen in:

1. a shift in the Indian pharmaceutical industry from an approach based solely on low cost manufacture of generics to the research-drive innovation of novel drugs for the global market,
2. the emergence of an entrepreneurial biotech sector in India, and
3. the consideration by multinational pharmaceutical companies of investing in R&D and manufacturing operations in India.

In agriculture these effects are apparent in a rich pipeline of new innovations that promise to make Indian agricultural sector more competitive and profitable. In agriculture, besides a substantial allocation of funds for R&D, two new initiatives were started in 2005:

1. the National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) and
2. the Indo-U.S. Agricultural Knowledge Initiative (AKI).

India continues to greatly benefit from technical, financial, material, managerial, and human-resource inputs and assistance from international agencies, developed countries, and, more recently, international not-for-profit organizations for capacity building in the healthcare sector. Programs are shifting toward capacity building in the community for health delivery and networking, policy frameworks and so on. For example, public-private development partnerships (PDPs) with both Indian and foreign collaborators are being explored with some degree of promise and success. Another example relates to international collaboration in promoting technology management. With the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S., the Technology Forecasting and Assessment Council of the Department of Science and Technology has recently initiated a joint program to train young technology managers at the NIH tech transfer system for five weeks.

The transition of India from a protected economy to be an open, global-economic power has prompted India to take a series of steps to face the new challenges of globalization. All the public sector science and technology agencies have realized that importance of intellectual property and its creative management and have initiated steps toward generation of knowledge that could be IP protected. Furthermore, the lessons learned from the Indian experience are broadly applicable, as many developing countries rapidly advance. Strengthening R&D, establishing policies for the creation and management of intellectual property and fostering PDPs are all important steps for making the products of public-health importance available in all countries.

Key Implications and Best Practices

Given that IP management is heavily context specific, these Key Implications and Best Practices are intended as starting points to be adapted to specific needs and circumstances.

For Government Policy-makers

• In the post-agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) era, global competitiveness will be essential for sustained success. Steps that should be taken include enhancing funding for R&D, promoting innovative research, creating an environment that fosters challenging research and building an IP system that facilitates invention, drives innovation, and catalyzes technology transfer.
• In the public sector, there is a need to create institutional systems to identify intellectual property and protect it via appropriate means. A trained cadre of IP and technology transfer professionals, to help scientists identify, protect and manage intellectual property, will be a core component of such a system.
• In many developing countries, appropriate national policy initiatives and targeted strategies for IP protection, coupled with infrastructure and regulatory systems for testing and evaluation of the products (clinical trials), are lacking. In the area of health, there is critical need for products to treat diseases of the poor, yet little interest from the pharmaceutical industry to pursue R&D on such products. Hence, in order to drive progress, initiatives and strategies are needed to mobilize the untapped (albeit ubiquitous) pool of domestic innovative capacity.

For Senior Management (university president, R&D manager, etc)

• There is a need to create mechanisms to help scientists identify new intellectual property early and protect through appropriate means. To help in this effort, there is a need to create a Technology Transfer Office staffed with a trained cadre of IP and technology transfer professionals to help scientists identify, protect and manage intellectual property. In addition, an institutional IP policy should be put in place that includes a system of incentives to innovators.
• Efforts should be made to ensure that the government constantly frames and revises national inventor-friendly policies for IP protection, upgrades infrastructure and regulatory systems for testing and evaluation of the products (clinical trials) and provides for a transparent IP regime that fosters domestic innovation, attracts foreign investment, and technology transfer/licensing partnerships and collaborations.

For Scientists

• Scientists should strive for increased funding for R&D in order to pursue cutting edge research that could yield innovations essential for the overall public good. IP awareness, capacity and management are integral to this process.
• Scientists ought to identify new intellectual property early and seek IP protection through appropriate means. Interacting with staff from the Technology Transfer Office will facilitate this, but scientists needed to be motivated, need to feel that they too are stakeholders. Therefore, advocate for an IP policy that would provide a system of incentives to innovators.

For Technology Transfer Officers

• The post-TRIPS era provides challenges and opportunities for Universities and public sector laboratories to become globally competitive. Universities and R&D Institutes have a critical role, and technology transfer managers have an important responsibility as facilitators and implementers of best practices in IP management.
• Encourage scientists from your institution to interact with the industry. These public sector/private sector R&D collaborations can create dynamic synergies and catalyze rapid development of critical innovations in health and agriculture.
• Efforts should be made to interact with management to push for government policies for academia-industry collaboration and national inventor-friendly policies for IP protection. Upgrading infrastructure and implementing regulatory systems for testing and evaluation of innovations (clinical trials) will accelerate products’ entry into the market.