Spurious drug manufacturers, duplicating the fast moving brands of known pharmaceutical companies enjoy 10 to 15 per cent of the market share in the country, complaints Habil Khorakiwala, chairman, Wockhardt Limited. He has alleged that most of these spurious stuff comes out of licensed small-scale companies who are in for a fast buck.

Participating in a discussion organised by Medically Aware and Responsible Citizens of Hyderabad (MARCH), a city based forum that brings together medical practitioners, professionals and researchers, Khorakiwala felt that the government is yet to check the spurious drug problem the way it should. He pointed out that the reputed pharmaceutical companies have recently come together to engage a private intelligence agency to keep a vigil on the problem and also to help the government agencies to put an end to the spurious drug menace. The particular taskforce also helped the agencies in tracking down some of the companies indulged in such criminal offences, he said.

According to Khorakiwala, the raids conducted in just five companies in some parts of North India helped them to seize 10-truck load of packaging material, which had the labels of known pharmaceutical companies.

Commenting on the possible fallouts of the impending WTO regime, the Wockhardt Chairman said that the Indian pharmaceutical industry would face no serious threat due to the new patent regime. The product patent compulsions will never be felt, as the changes will be gradual. Indian industry is capable of taking on a smooth transition, within a period of 6-7 years.

It was pointed out that 63 per cent of the commonly prescribed drugs in Britain falls within the off patent category. Similar is the situation in USA where the percentage is 50. All new products that have patent protection are specialised drugs. The high costs of such drugs will never affect the general health, he opined.

Responding to a query on the AIDS drugs and the patents, he said that the softening stand on relaxing the patent privileges that has come from the patent holding multinationals is an example of how social compulsions can humble the patent laws.

Khorakiwala called for a better industry-institution interaction where more collaborative research projects could be taken up and more patents filed. He also pointed that the country lacks credible patent attorneys, which has become a highly specialised area in developed countries.