Articles by N Lalitha

This paper discusses three important aspects of the Canadian pharmaceutical industry: compulsory licensing (CL), price control on patented drugs and the R&D scenario. Unlike other developed countries, which have adopted the route of providing higher intellectual property rights (IPRs) protection to promote the growth of the domestic pharmaceutical industry, Canada chose to limit IPRs on important pharmaceutical products. Till the early 1990s, Canada stood alone among the developed countries in using CLs for pharmaceutical patents held in Canada, which helped the promotion of the domestic generic industry. Interestingly, though the pharmaceutical industry of both countries has common points of comparison, the most important point of divergence is that while the Indian pharmaceutical industry is backed by a well-established homegrown chemical industry, Canada lacks this advantage.

A SWOT analysis of the Indian pharmaceutical industry (IPI) in the WTO regime reveals that the much acclaimed IPI's expertise in process development skills were made possible by amendments made to the Indian Patents Act 1970. This strength should be utilised to the hilt to benefit from opportunities that arise from vertical disintegration of research, clinical trials and manufacturing by the multinationals. IPI faces threats in the form of competition from other Asian giants, particularly China. This paper argues that the IPI should adopt various strategies like producing off-patented products, new patented products by acquiring compulsory licensing or cross licensing, collaborate with multinationals not only in R and D and manufacturing, but also in marketing new patented products and improving the standards of production to widen the export market.

This paper analyses the trends in growth and efficiency in the utilisation of resources in the Indian manufacturing industry before and after the introduction of economic reforms. It uses a comparative analysis of all-India figures with Gujarat, one of the most industrially developed states of the country. The study shows that both the organised and unorganised sectors in Gujarat seemed to be doing better than the all-India average in terms of growth of value added. Growth in the manufacturing sector in Gujarat was also more efficient than average all-India growth after the reforms were introduced. Gujarat's strategy of physical infrastructure development, leading to industrialisation, has been the main reason for the growth of the state's manufacturing sector.