His statement assumes significance as earlier this month, the US flagged the restriction on patent-eligible subject matter in Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act which prohibits the grant of ‘evergreening’ patents, which are additional patents for a drug with no therapeutic benefit, and are seen to increase the term of a patent monopoly.
“I receive this request very often that we should also allow pharmaceutical companies the ability to have incremental changes to their patents and allow them to have a fresh patent for another long period of time. We normally understand that as evergreening of patents,” Goyal said.
The UK and the EU have also sought amendments in India’s Patents Act to allow the ‘evergreening’ of patents, especially in pharma.
“It is so sad that just for the supernatural profits of a select few companies and possibly their shareholders, the world has to suffer. The world is deprived of quality healthcare is deprived of equitable healthcare,” Goyal said at the event.The US Trade Representative has said that it continues to monitor the restriction on patent-eligible subject matter in Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act and its impacts.“Pharmaceutical stakeholders continue to raise concerns as to whether India has an effective system for protecting against unfair commercial use and unauthorized disclosure of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical and agricultural chemical products,” USTR said in its foreign trade barriers report earlier this month.
At the event, Goyal called for working towards global critical trials and research, particularly on traditional medicines, setting high standards of safety without compromising on compliances and making it easier to comply with the needs of scientific evidence.
Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said: “For us, healthcare is not just curing a sick patient. Healthcare is preventive healthcare, it is wellness, it is mental healthcare, and it means bridging society under the umbrella of a better lifestyle and a better future”.
He also highlighted that more than 620 million people are now eligible for free healthcare under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the world’s largest government-sponsored health insurance programme, emphasizing that India’s commitment was never driven by profit but by compassion.
