Pharma cos ask for IPR regime

Pharma cos ask for IPR regime
EEB & AGENCIES

NEW DELHI, OCT 7: Pharmaceuticals companies today asked the government to put in place an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime that would protect innovations and create a competitive environment.

"We need to put in place an IPR regime that would protect industry innovations and strengthen research and development activity in the country," Ranbaxy Laboratories CEO D S Brar said at the India Chem 2000 conference here.

Toeing the same line, Pfizer India Ltd Managing Director Ian R Young said "India should guarantee protection of IPR... this will tremendously boost international investor confidence who seek realistic returns on their investments in the long-term through protection of their intellectual property from copying or duplicacy."

"We are beginning to realise the importance of knowledge creation. IPR Laws will soon be in place while Indian companies would be allowed a transition period till 2004 when the regime comes into force," said H R Khusrokhan, Managing Director, Glaxo-Wellcome.

The new age industry competition will see a paradigm shift from comparative advantage of cost and natural resources to competitive advantage of product and processes, he said.

India has abundant natural resources, strong innovative and cheap labour force and a large living laboratory of untreated patients that could make the country a global giant in pharmaceuticals sector, Khusrokhan said adding lack of IPR protection and weak regulatory framework and entry barriers were hindering its progress.

Stating that India should guarantee to protect proprietary knowledge, Young said Indian pharmaceuticals industry, with its expertise in genomics and human genome, needs to focus on the 20 billion dollar generic industry through more research and development.

The country needs quality training infrastructure, setting up clinical and testing facilities and adopting global quality standards and guidelines, Khusrokhan said adding India has just over one per cent market share of global pharmaceutical market of 340 billion dollars.

India's pharmaceutical market share will go up to eight billion dollars by 2001 from the present six billion dollar, international consultant M D Nair said.

Pointing out that expenditure on research and development in India was minuscule, Nair said Rs 2000 crore are spent on 1225 R&D centres which was just 0.6 per cent of the turnover. In comparison expenditure by US pharmaceutical industry was 18 billion dollars.

Manju Sharma, Secretary, Biotechnology, called for setting up quality research and development (R&D) Infrastructure through private-public sector investment.

"The government will continue to support creation of infrastructure while industry should joint hands with government to establish international standards research centre in the country," she added.

Sun rises up ORG rankings ladder

MUMBAI: Sun Pharmaceuticals, ranked 16th during early 1999, has moved up to fifth position as per the latest ORG MAT (moving annual total) data for the months of July and August 2000.

Sun Pharma's sharp rise, though likely to be overshadowed once the Dr Reddy's group merger is consummated, is a "function of the business design that favours lasting customer relationships for a long-term prescription increase". Dr Reddy's, analysts say, will to pip Sun Pharma to the fifth position, once the consolidation is completed.

Significantly, Sun Pharma's rise to fifth position comes with the displacement of others like Wockhardt, Zydus Cadila and Knoll Pharma along the way. As of February 2000, Sun Pharma stood at eighth position (MAT) as per ORG data, though these figures do not include institutional sales figures.