In January 2005, drug product patent protection was reintroduced in India to comply with the agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. How are the multinational pharmaceutical companies responding to the new policy environment? Is India likely to see monopolisation of the industry and high prices, which was the pattern before 1972 when India had product patent protection? Will the positive features of the post-1972 process patent era be diluted or negated?

The Ranbaxy sale to Daiichi Sankyo could herald a new phase in the evolution of the Indain pharmaceutical industry. In order to cope in a world after the agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights came into force, some of the larger Indian firms pursued the two strategies of a greater internationalisation of sales of generic drugs and a focus on research and development as junior partners of global giants. Ranbaxy had mixed success with the two strategies.