Thematic Highlight Prashant wrote a special report on certain regulatory restrictions passed by the Ministry of Heath and Family Welfare; the Ministry announced that the Karnataka Antibiotics and Pharmaceuticals Ltd.(a PSU) would be the sole authority for manufacture and supply of the pregnancy drug, oxytocin. In his report, he examines a Himachal Pradesh HC judgment which suggested the need to restrict manufacture of oxytocin to the public sector and claimed that adverse effects were caused by oxytocin. He also examines…

Thematic Highlight Prof. Basheer and Pankhuri provided a critical analysis of the National IPR Policy 2016. They note that the policy is not worth celebrating, since it largely endorses dogmatic views of IPR and lacks the creativity necessary for a robust policy framework. They do, however, point out that the policy has done well to recognise the importance of open-access works and rewarding innovation through prizes and awards. They provide excerpts of their recently published paper, which provides the first…

Thematic Highlight Prof. Basheer wrote another post on the Novartis AG v. Union of India decision in continuation to his earlier post on a Chinese blockbuster inspired by the Novartis decision. In the first half of his post, he focuses on the Court’s strict construction of the term ‘efficacy’ under Section 3(d) and how Novartis was unable to prove the same in its anti-cancer drug Glivec. He then recounts several flaws in the Court’s reasoning and the decision-making process. He then analyses…

We have had another eventful week at the blog. Thematic Highlight Our thematic highlight for this week came from a guest post by Dr Balakrishna Pisupati, who wrote on the strict interpretation of the Biological Diversity Act 2002 and associated rules, which has resulted in a number of people falling foul of the legislation’s penal provisions. Dr Pisupati highlighted the dissonance in the provisions on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing which have been interpreted by the Indian Govt….