Biotech sector upbeat over Patents Bill

The innovation-driven biotech sector is upbeat over the passage of the Patents (Amendment) Bill 2005 through the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

"The biotech sector is driven by innovation and will get a boost when the act comes into force. The new regime will benefit companies developing innovative biotech products and also help companies maximise their revenues without fear of piracy," said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairman and managing director, Biocon Limited.

With innovative ideas and products getting protection, researchers and scientists working in various laboratores, both in the private and public sector, in the country are to benefit.

"For researchers and scientists who slogged through their lives, spending precious time and resources, it is payback time," she said.

This move by the Centre will also attract venture funds which have shied away over the last few years, for fear of piracy and duplication.

"Earlier, the venture companies were a worried lot. With no intellectual property protection, they found it hard to assess technologies. But now they will definitely feel secured," she said and added that the sector may see more funds flowing its way this year.

With the new regime in place, the year may also see more products, especially vaccines, diagnostic products and antigens hitting the market.

Earlier speaking at a 'Sensitisation Programme on Impact of new IPR Regime on Biotech Sector' organised by Development Commissioner, Small Scale Industries, Department of Biotechnology and Biotech Consortium India, Ms Shaw said through the new IPR regime, the biotech sector should take advantage as companies focussing on small molecules (conventional chemistry) are failing to meet the growing demand.

Small molecule companies are firms which use the regular chemical route to build drugs.

"The US being the largest regulated pharma market, there is pressure on such pharma companies to develop drugs at a faster rate. The failure rate among small molecule companies is high, given that during 2004 only four small molecules were approved as compared to 20 therapeutic biotech-based molecules," she added.

Talking about developments at the WTO talks, S Narayanan, former ambassador and permanent representative of India to WTO said, "Research-based US institutes are pressing for patent protection of plants and this is a cause for concern among the developing countries." Hence some countries with rich biodiversity are grouping to tackle the issue, he added.

Narayanan further highlighted that "through the compulsory licencing route, the government has taken the responsibility to intervene to check drug prices and also aid poor countries with insufficient or no manufacturing capacity to get medicines cheaper".

In the last three years patent filing has caught on in India. "With active filing by government bodies and companies, patent filing in the US has crossed the 500 mark. But the country lags behind Singapore (600 patents), China (1,700) and Japan (48,000)," said Dr Anindya Sircar, head IPR Biocon.

Patent Co-operation Treaty applications filed from India have touched the 500 mark with CSIR institutions, Ranbaxy, Biocon, Hetero Drugs, Orchid Chemicals and Sun Pharma leading the way.

The Small Industries Service Institute (SISI), under the ministry of small scale industries, is planning to reimburse expenses incurred by small scale industries for getting patents.

SISI is increasingly targetting the biotech sector as it is well suited for technology transfers and R&D projects through government and private companies' partnerships due to small size and the cost of operations.

A similar exercise is in place for companies going in for ISO 9000 certification. This is being done to equip small companies to face global competition, said S S Dhillon, director, SISI.