The government must encourage the manufacture of cheaper drugs which will benefit the consumer. Till the early 1980's, dominant foreign companies dominated pharmaceutical manufacturing in India. Today the dominant ones are Indian owned. The then Indian patent laws helped this transformation. Until recently India recognised only process patents. Reverse engineering by Indian pharmaceutical chemists enabled Indian companies to replicate popular foreign drugs through different processes and market them in India. Since some foreign companies delayed introducing newer drugs because they thought they could make more money out of older ones, Indian copies could be made and earned substantial revenues. Indian companies like Ranbaxy and others, also used profits from such copying to invest in excellent development and production facilities as well as in R & D. As some drugs came off patents overseas, Indian companies started exploring markets for the same drugs overseas, as