The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
Controversies and litigations threaten to derail a sector that once saw immense potential in India. Are you getting free medicines? Have you been asked to return the empty medicine bottles? If so, contact us…” Around 10,000 prints of these snappy queries have been ordered by Indore-based civil rights activist Amulya …
Institutionalised mechanism forbenefit sharing mooted As India gets ready to ratify the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) arising from utilisation of genetic resources, scientists and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) experts point to the dangers of opening up the country’s rich biodiversity for exploitation by foreign powers without …
This global citizens' report published by Navdanya, depicts concentration and restrictions in the global seed sector as a result of IPR regimes and corporate convergence. Focuses on the need to stop seed laws that are preventing farmers from saving and exchanging their native varieties. A global citizens' report on 'Seed …
As India plays host to the Convention on Biological Diversity's 11th Conference of the Parties in Hyderabad in October 2012, this article takes a closer look at the country's legislation on the subject - the Biological Diversity Act (2002).
The Novartis case highlights the need for innovation in the public interest. The Supreme Court has commenced final hearings on a case brought before it by the Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis. The case disputes the denial of a patent on Novartis’s anti-cancer drug Glivec. Novartis’s position is that incentives to …
Open source drug discovery offers potential for developing new and inexpensive drugs to combat diseases that disproportionally affect the poor. The concept borrows two principle aspects from open source computing (i.e., collaboration and open access) and applies them to pharmaceutical innovation. By opening a project to external contributors, its research …
New Delhi The International Cri-minal Police Organisation, popularly known as Interpol, wants to assist the Indian government in its effort to clamp down on the alleged ‘fake drugs’ network in the country. While the France-headquartered agency wants New Delhi and India’s generic drug companies to sign up for the Interpol …
An inter-ministerial group tasked with regulating prices of patented medicines has recommended using a per capita income-linked reference pricing mechanism, a proposal that may reduce prices of several patented dugs by up to onethird but will hit the profitability of foreign companies. The committee, headed by an official from the …
Ranchi, Aug. 8: Farmers of the region, always in dire need of advice on crops and registering various plant varieties, will now have access to experts in Ranchi now that a branch office of a Delhi-based watchdog body has started functioning from the state capital. The branch office of Protection …
The traditional knowledge (TK) of India’s people touches many lives within the country and outside it. For the holders of TK, it is their very lives and thus valuable as is. For others who don’t live by it, it has been priced – given a monetary value, be it by …
The Earth Summit was a historical opportunity to set the world on the correct development trajectory. Negotiators from 191 countries came together to chart a road map for sustainable development and poverty eradication. The theme was green economy. But developed and developing countries refused to bury their differences. Developed countries …
Differences galore over the commitments made at the Earth Summit As the leaders met in a mountain-girdled Brazilian town for the crucial official round of discussions on the Rio+20 text, what was most noticeably missing was the kind of excitement that was witnessed two decades ago, when more than 172 …
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has put in place a mechanism to define counterfeit medical products. The set of definitions of sub-standard, spurious, falsely labelled, falsified and counterfeit products will be globally accepted and help to bring about uniformity in identifying such drugs, without interrupting worldwide supplies. The decision to …
Developing countries in Asia, led by China and India, are among the fastest growing economies in the world today. Economic growth in the region in the coming 20 years will exceed the average level of world economy, boosting a continuous increase in primary energy demand. While such economic development would …
The RNR Research Policy of Bhutan responds to building a knowledge-based society and emerging challenge of transforming Bhutanese agriculture from subsistence to a commercial-based economy in the 10th Five Year Plan and beyond. To support this transition, the RNR Research Policy of Bhutan provides guidance on the conduct and management …
Health is a crucially important social and economic asset - a cornerstone for human development. Three of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) call for specific health improvements by 2015: reducing the child and maternal mortality and slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
In January 2005, drug product patent protection was reintroduced in India to comply with the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. How are the multinational pharmaceutical companies responding to the new policy environment? Is India likely to see monopolisation of the industry and high prices, which was …
The government today asserted India would invoke the flexibility it had under the WTO agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) for compulsory licensing of patented drugs to ensure availability of life saving drugs at affordable prices to its people. The Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks had …
This paper reviews theoretical and empirical literature that originated predominantly during and after TRIPS, focusing on the influence of changes in patent protection on developing countries. Previous studies identify two channels of gain for developing countries, from strong patent rights. Firstly, the promotion channel whereby, patent rights affect innovativeness of …
Preparations for the Rio+20 United Nations conference on sustainable development have begun, but the first round of preparatory meetings did not address important issues such as sustainable resource use, production and consumption.
