In an effort to provide useful information related to the intellectual property rights to the pharmaceutical manufacturers and exporters in the country, the Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) will soon establish an intellectual property rights (IPR) centre at its headquarters in Hyderabad. The centre will exclusively deal with various issues and concerns relating to intellectual property rights.

The Union Chemicals Ministry has recently given a green signal to the centre and is expected to become functional within next six months. The ministry would also provide financial support to Pharmexcil for the centre, Pharmexcil executive director Dr P V Appaji said.

With the IPR awareness levels on the rise across the sector, it is right time that we should start addressing these IPR matters, its utilisation and enforcement in a proper way. This was planned because of increasing enquiries from various companies on IPR front, he said. The centre would collect data on intellectual properties and disseminate these information relating to IPR protection and other requirements to small and medium enterprise as well as for the industry also.

The Pharmexcil, established by the central government to promote pharmaceutical exports from the country, has recently initiated several steps to help the pharma exporters in the country. Apart from working as a bridge between the government and the exporters to ease the hassles related to exports, it provides data and other information related to various regulations governing the various export markets in the world. The establishment of the IPR centre will go a long way in imparting information regarding IPR related issues to the pharma exporters.