The Introduction of Pharmaceutical Product Patents in India: "Heartless Exploitation of the Poor and Suffering"

TRIPs, the intellectual property component of the Uruguay round GATT Treaty, gave rise to an acrimonious debate between the developed countries and less developed countries (LDCs). On one side, business interests in the developed world claimed large losses from the imitation and use of their innovations in LDCs. They also asserted that establishing strong intellectual property rights would actually benefit the developing countries by encouraging foreign investment, the transfer of technology and greater domestic research and development (R&D). On the other side, LDC governments adamantly opposed this view, worrying about the higher prices that stronger intellectual property rights would entail and about the harm that their introduction might cause to infant high tech industries.