TRIPS AGREEMENT: ANALYSING ITS IMPACT ON INDIA'S PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

The evolution of the Indian pharmaceutical business from the protectionist 1911 Act to its current position as the "Pharmacy of the World" is examined in this article using the TRIPS Agreement as a lens. It draws attention to how the Patents Act of 1970 first promoted a self-sufficient generic industry by substituting process patents for product patents, which enabled domestic companies to prosper through reverse engineering. The necessary shift toward global harmonisation after 2005 is also examined in the study, which also describes how India complied with TRIPS standards by putting in place legal protections such Section 3(d) to stop "evergreening" and Section 84 for compulsory licensing. By analysing seminal court cases like Novartis v. Union of India and Bayer v. Union of India, the analysis shows how India strikes a compromise between the public "Right to Health" and private intellectual property rights. The study comes to the conclusion that, despite the strict international standards brought about by TRIPS, India has successfully made use of policy flexibility to shift into an innovative industry, aiming for a $450 billion valuation by 2047, while continuing to be a vital source of reasonably priced medicine for the Global South.