Posts Tagged: "Patent Law 2.0"

Patent Law 2.0: Not the Answer the Developing World Needs

In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Amy Kapczynski argues that the Supreme Court of India’s strict interpretation of the country’s new patent law provides a model to be followed by other countries. Kapczynski applauds this “Patent Law 2.0” and argues that it will enhance access to medicines and may improve pharmaceutical innovation. Unfortunately she is wrong on both counts. Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act forbids the patenting of new forms of known drugs unless the new form significantly enhances efficacy and yields therapeutic benefits. Accordingly, much of the incremental innovation that is done on existing treatments will no longer be patentable under the so-called Patent Law 2.0. These are not issues considered by Kapczynski. Astonishingly, she interprets the impact of this law as follows, “Provisions like Section 3(d) can help reverse this effect [prioritizing incremental innovation over breakthrough drug discovery] and encourage companies to undertake the riskier and more expensive research that is required to generate breakthrough drugs.” Her analysis is strikingly naïve. It is laughable to think that weaker intellectual property rights (IPR) protection will incentivize innovative pharmaceutical firms to expend more resources and take on greater risk.