Doctoral Dissertation Research: The State, Intellectual Property Rights, and the Rise of India's Pharmaceutical Industry

Clark University, Worcester MA

Investigators

Abstract

Although the global pharmaceutical industry is largely dominated by firms from Europe and North America, India now has the third largest pharmaceutical industry in the world when measured by production volume. Many other developing countries attempted to establish domestic pharmaceutical industries, but India had the most success by far, emerging as the "generics pharma capital of the world" and as supplier of most of the world's anti-retroviral drugs. This doctoral dissertation research project will explore how India, which had weak patent laws and a so-called "failed developmental state," has developed such a significant pharmaceutical industry. Most recent explanations have examined intellectual property rights, which now are a condition of World Trade Organization membership, but have not considered as extensively the roles of other state policies including price controls, restrictions on monopolies, and foreign investment. The doctoral student will conduct interviews with key stakeholders in the industry (Indian pharmaceutical firms, industry association groups, and government policymakers) and will gather secondary data from archival research of government policy documents, company reports, and industry association group publications. This project will produce a historically grounded investigation of the emergence of India's pharmaceutical industry. The results of the research are expected to illuminate how the Indian state and the pharmaceutical industry interacted, often with unintended consequences, to develop a high-tech industry in a developing nation. This project will focus on a surprising case of industrial development, the Indian pharmaceutical industry, which has defied a series of adverse global political and economic circumstances over the course of its historical evolution. It is currently restructuring as a result of ongoing measures towards liberalization as well as the impact of changing patent laws. By providing a detailed account of the political-economic development of the Indian pharmaceutical industry, the project will contribute to basic understanding of the roles of intellectual property regulations and the state in industrialization and their implications for development policy. This project has potential implications for the strategies to be employed by developing nations to counter unfavorable terms of trade with developed nations, and it may suggest new forms of global governance that might offer fairer developmental opportunities. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.