IP: India, Generics and the Impact of Novartis’ Failed Gleevec Claims

India has earned its reputation as “the world’s pharmacy” because it supplies—primarily in the form of generics—much of the affordable medicine needed by countries in the developing world. The country’s $26 billion generic pharmaceutical industry gained the lion’s share of its growth in the period before 2005, when India started offering patent protection to pharmaceuticals. Since then, courts in India have struggled to balance the international trade commitments that prompted the 2005 creation of India’s patent laws with a desire to continue providing wide-spread access to lower cost generic medicines.