The Indian pharmaceutical sector is large and has the
potential of a global leader for low-priced high-quality
drugs. The new patent regulations had a strong impact
on the drug industry in India. There is a serious decline
in the number of pharma patents recently after compulsory
licensing for drugs was implemented in India.
While regulations are meant for reducing the prices of
essential drugs, there are investment-related issues
when a patent is subjected to voluntary licensing. The
present study focuses on three phases in pharmaceutical
patenting identified by analysing the major patent
databases and the potential shift in pharma patenting
sector from acute to lifestyle disease-based drugs. The
recent trend identified in the pharma patenting sector
in India is quite unusual and unreported so far
