India Bans Evergreening of Patents: Goyal

New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said India will not allow "evergreening" of patents.

He said that India has a robust intellectual property rights (IPR) chapter in both the free trade agreements with the UK and the four-nation block EFTA.

"We will not allow any ever greening", and despite that "we still have a robust IPR chapter with two of the toughest countries of the world in IPR - Switzerland and the UK", he told reporters here.

Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act, 1970, restricts patents for already-known drugs unless the new claims are superior in terms of efficacy, while Section 3(b) bars patents for products that are against public interest and do not demonstrate enhanced efficacy over existing products.

Certain multinational firms have asked India to amend these laws, which were strongly opposed.

Ever-greening of patent rights is a strategy allegedly adopted by the innovators having patent rights over products to renew them by bringing in some minor changes, such as adding new mixtures or formulations. It is done when their patent is about to expire. A patent on the new form would have given the innovator company a 20-year monopoly on the drug.

Pharma firms from countries, including Switzerland and the UK, are demanding evergreening of patents.

The IPR chapter in these agreements is "a big signal that India is emerging out of the shadows and sitting on a high table with developed countries", Goyal said.

Talking about collaboration in the critical minerals sector with the UK, he said India and the UK both have concerns and common interests in this area after the ban imposed by (China) on rare earth permanent magnets.

"The whole world has woken up to the reality that concentration of certain geographies in their supply chains can be harmful, and can suffer consequences in case of any unilateral action. Therefore, India and the UK are now looking to work together both for collaborating on the processing and refining of minerals and making finished products together," he said.