A Lecture on ‘Trips, Patents and Drug Prices in India,’ was held at the Joan Robinson hall on 5 November, 2019. The Lecture was delivered by Professor Bhaven Sampat, Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University, and chaired by Professor Sunil Mani, Director, CDS.
Abstract of the Lecture: This study examines the effects of product patents on drug prices and competition in India. Though previous analyses have found only negligible effects of patents on prices and competition in the post-TRIPS era, we argue that the drugs considered in those analyses are not representative of the impact of TRIPS going forward. When we focus on drugs fully covered by the TRIPS regime – those whose primary (compound) patent has a post-1995 priority date — we find much larger effects of patents on prices and competition. We discuss implications for prices, access, and innovation in India and globally, and for empirical research on the globalization of patent protection