Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Will the Indian Mobile makers pay a price for the judicial ambiguity (& their own..) on 'Essential Patents' & FRAND terms?

In his characteristic & incisive style, 'Spicy IP' Prashant Reddy unravels for debate, the ongoing litigation between Ericsson & Micromax Informatics Ltd. after Ericsson sued Micromax (and Mercury Electronics Ltd.) a few months ago for allegedly infringing 8 of its telecom patents for a range of wireless technologies, including 3G, AMR and Edge - read the artcile here @ http://spicyipindia.blogspot.in/2013/05/the-ericsson-micromax-patent-litigation.html 

Looking at the haste in which the Delhi High Court granted an ex-parte interim injunction against Micromax, I cannot but agree with the writer's initial assessment that Indian regulatory apparatus & companies are not geared up for fighting complex & strategic IP litigations.

I however don't share Prashant's (rather gloomy) view that "it is unlikely they (Indian companies) will take the extra-effort to counter-attack Ericsson in a bid to pre-empt future action by other patentees" - like i said earlier in a article of mine, commerce & the promise of it is a good enough reason for any company to learn the ropes of the trade. It also should be understood that, even if it makes immense sense, someone like Micromax may not really be able to go all proactive since they aren't exactly the Apple OR Samsung & their margins, I would expect, will be minimal.

The need is however crystal clear - It's about time Indian regulators, judiciary & indian tech-companies that have to mostly deal with dangerous dampeners like royalty-stacking et al take a crash course in what they need to expect & how they could make strategic litigation a part of their daily lexicon.

below is my comment posted on the above article on Spicy IP;




vishrasayan said...
Excellent insight Prashant!

It appears as though the displaced-vanguards of the mobile technology such as Motorola, Ericsson have re-strategized their revenue generation to monetizing their patents rather than depending on competitive selling :-)

I also see your point about the Indian regulatory, judicial apparatus & the companies themselves prepping way too less on litigations and that's bothersome – this lack of comprehension also resonates with the lack of precise articulation I wrote about some-time ago on my blog… hopefully this will change.

I do agree the potential for royalty-stacking in mobile technology makes it much complex and hence the need for a middle-path, but healthcare too comes with its own complexity of access to latest innovation - I have read your earlier post on compulsory licensing – it appears to me there’s a dichotomy in your justification of premium for innovation (patents) in healthcare and not applying the same yard-stick for the mobile technology…?










Monday, May 6, 2013

Dear HBR, defend your research!

In the May 2013 issue of HBR that has a ‘spotlight on entrepreneurship’, Adi Ignatius observes in the very first paragraph of his editorial that the “IPO market has been soft for years” & on a closing note hoped for ‘a steadier flow of IPOs’ as the economy is on the path to recovery.

This angst I thought pretty much reinforces the dominant LP complaint of an ‘absent IPO market in venture backed firms’ these days. Given this, I expected the articles to focus on elucidating about scalability of an early enterprise to the entrepreneurs – which I realized wasn’t the case after reading through the same.

Each of the four articles & the one interview instead seemed standalone in content & interestingly anti-VC in tone & tenor – not sure why. Since an elaborate hypothesis on these already elaborate academic articles didn’t appeal to me, I felt capturing the essence of each article in a single line would make it crisper - but given the duality of the message in the articles/ interview, I decided that the take-away messages should be in two sets, one for the entrepreneur & one for VC.

Here goes;

FOR THE ENTREPRENEUR

Go the Lean-way or Fade away1
Seek out the client, not just an investor2
To err is VC – YOU, be the driver3
Marry the VC if you must, just make sure the pre-nup is not one-sided!4
If you are good, a Top VC will find you / If a Top VC funds you, you must be good!5

FOR THE VC

Lean is in – Junk the flab (read: 5yr business plan et al.)1
Failing early is a virtue, at times, most times2
Focus on great returns, not on large fees – Stay relevant3
VCs are good but dated – Brace up for the Gen-Y entrepreneur4
If you aren’t a top-quartile VC, tough luck!, great deals don’t happen to you5
Article reference:
Click link to access the article, (I pay for my Kindle edition tho’..)
1.        Article “Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything” by Steve Blank
2.        Article “What Entrepreneurs Get Wrong” by Vincent Onyemah, Martha Rivera Pesquera, and Abdul Ali
3.        Article “Six Myths About Venture Capitalists” by Diane Mulcahy
4.        Article “How to Negotiate with VCs” by Deepak Malhotra
5.        “In Search of the Next Big Thing, Interview of Marc Andreessen

Most of the above messages have been around for some time now, only this comes across as a tacit academic endorsement of the market grapevine - If I forget scalability for a moment, my summarized takeaway from the above is;

Whether or not there’s something basically and drastically wrong with the current VC model, the emerging new trends in the start-up strategies make it pertinent that the early investors, in particular the VCs, should evolve in tandem – This is important not only for sustaining the radically different new-gen start-ups but also for the sustenance of the VC domain itself.

I always liked the way the professors are called out to defend their research in “Idea Watch” section of HBR, So do I now say; 

Dear HBR, defend your research? 

Game on…


After thought:

Ponder the following exchange between Adi Ignatius (Editor HBR) and Mark Andreessen (Venture Capitalist) - ref: In Search of the Next Big Thing
Adi:    You’ve developed a strong philanthropic focus. Is the next generation of investors thinking about social investment?
Marc:   No. [Laughs.]
Adi:    So much for my hopes for the next generation.
Marc:   Many younger entrepreneurs have a social mission or a philanthropic agenda. They start early. Investors, not so much.
Considering this is towards the end of the conversation, I thought Marc was pretty dismissive about another aspect that investors both big and small HAVE to eventually look at "Corporate Social responsibility" of financial organizations. I pondered on this in my earlier article titled "IRR v/s Social Impact: Do financial institutions necessarily go through this dilemma?" - No answers tho'.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Does the SEC validation of TFC model pave way to cyberization of venture capital? – a SWOT

It’s always exhilarating when the old, routine systems and approaches evolve by embracing and respecting the newer technological trends – the recent endorsement by SEC (The US Securities & Exchange Commission) of the TheFundersClub (TFC) model of venture funding is surely an exciting harbinger of things to come.

Some suppositions & sweeping statements before a SWOT

  • Even as the Venturebeat article is upbeat about this validation of SEC being ‘significant for the venture capital and finance industries as well as start-ups looking for more flexible methods of fundraising’ – I’d consider that TFC is essentially a platform for individual accredited investors to spread their investments and risk & NOT (still) a VC firm that went online!
  • At this juncture, this is indicative of the strong trend towards of ‘gamification of investing’ rather than ‘cyberization of venture funding’.


STRENGTHS - This shift, whether or not paradigm, is promising

  • NUDGE TOWARDS A VC PROCESS UPGRADE: Like the Venturebeat article says, while VCs routinely chase investments into innovation, VC process itself has been largely untouched by technological advances – THIS is definitely is a nudge in the right direction
  • ENHANCED ANGEL INVESTOR BASE: The ability of an individual investor to bring down the investment size than otherwise possible offline will potentially open up the angel funding domain to a lot of HNWIs that else would go in for more conventional investments such as equities trading, real estate et al.
  • IMPROVED DECISION TIMELINES: The USD1K - 250K window for investment allowed by TFC is pretty much within the risk-threshold of an individual investor (the median deal size of an angel investor is ~0.6mio USD) & considering TFC makes screening of potential deals easier for the angel, it does appear TFC and the likes (clones that’ll invariably emerge & soon), can potentially get popular among the non-regular, domain-neutral angels that have a need to invest but very little time & inclination for any kind of foot work/ due-diligence.

WEAKNESSES - Good to be aware about what to be wary of
  • IMPATIENCE FUND: What helps the current ‘offline’ VC model is that the relative smallness of PE/VC funds in the total investment pool of an LP, essentially makes VC a patience-fund & this in effect is largely true with Angel investors that behave like the VCs. An open, online competitive crowd sourcing of funds may change the expectations of the investors and take the patience out of the fund.
  • CROWD BIAS V/S TRUE POTENTIAL: Again, the same transparency that lets the investor see the cumulative investments a particular company is attracting may also trigger a crowd-bias categorization of the hosted investee companies as attractive or unattractive merely by their ability to attract funds & not necessarily by their true potential, thus making it a gamble rather than an investment.
  • INVESTOR ATTRITION: And, while the range of investments allowed could lure a lot more investors like it has been mentioned before, it is also highly probable that the investor will compare it with his other investment options that may offer a quicker ROI & get disillusioned
  • SCALABILITY ISSUES: I’d think the scalability of a venture funding follows the path; angel investing --> venture capital --> private equity. Looking at the regulatory scenario & the way LPs operate, it doesn’t look plausible that this model can be applied in a scenario that i) Involves fund raising from traditional LPs & ii) Involves funding rounds involving multiple VCs  

THREATS - Being the devil’s advocate in an angels’ gathering
  • OFFLINE IS THE EVENTUAL DESTINATION: It is interesting to note that the SEC ‘no-action’ letter substantiates the non-action mostly based on operational relevance of the offline arm ‘FC Management’ rather than online TFC as such. – If not anything else, this indicates the omnipresent importance of an offline validation of an online user interface – But what’s the threat perception in this realization?... ponder this; It’s a well acknowledged fact by now that the real-money is offline & the scalability of any e-commerce platform is only when it triggers the quintessential O2O retro transition – This is particularly true in a case wherein it becomes necessary for TFC or the likes to generate more carried interest in order to be sustainable & the requisite scale of operation makes it pertinent that the investor & the investees are physically & comprehensively attended to – thus there exists a threat of the model progressively getting offline & hence get inconsequential.
  • CYBER-CONSUMERS ARE A DIFFERENT BREED: I always felt that the absence of
    scope for a visual prejudice or lack of pressure in conforming to imposed stereotypes makes the worldwide web a great leveller wherein most consumer demographics tend to blend and behave in a very similar fashion in being impulsive, adventurous, trend-junkie, impatient – meaning essentially everyone’s a teenager on Cyberia. 
    For a marketer this means that the average risk taking capacity of a consumer online is higher than when the same consumer is offline – but on the flip-side this also means that the cyber-consumer is seldom loyal & quick to get bored & that’s a definite & short-term threat.

OPPORTUNITIES - It’s eventually the potential of the Opportunity that prevails

  • The SEC endorsement qualifies the current TFC model as being the proof of concept for (eventual) handling of venture capital non-conventionally. As postulated above, there appears to be a lot to sort-out before the model can be scaled-up successfully, but the opportunity of defining a paradigm shift in VC is out there & I'm sure someone's already cobbling together a design to overcoming these road-blocks to scalability.
As Heraclitus said long ago, the only constant is change!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Foreign students find v(l)ocal support to become resident-aliens in the USA!, ....Conditions Apply

The tagline on the website says it all;

"It’s a no brainer to keep and attract brain power in America".

Led by the NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the enterpreneurs and pragmatists at Partnership for New American Economy in the USA are pushing for Immigration reform that'll help foreign students pursuing advanced STEM degrees (Science, Tech, Engg & Math) obtain greencard on priority & stay back

There are some interesting comments on a related blog post by Brad Feld, "Help Support Immigration Reform In The US"

Below is the comment I posted on the above entry;
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Avatar

Murali Apparaju11 hours ago
    Wow, straight from the heart bro..... I have folks in the USA that are run of the mill, the huddled masses that are struggling with the same employer for 12 years for the elusive green card..... I also have folks in the USA that are the pampered usefuls.... ones that make it to the green-card & citizenship quick n easy, ones that could change the face of Indian enterprise if they choose to come back but wouldn't since uncle Sam wants them.

    With no malice towards a great nation that takes care of it's own people before anyone elses (& heck, why not?), I don't think Brad there's any further need for reform, USA was/ is doing a great job of keeping the advanced STEM students trained in its own universities within its borders.... Take heart Jo...., just make it to that darn dean's list!
    The reform is needed in India (& probably in China, Vietnam et al)..... on how to lure back home the advanced degree STEM students groomed on home soil but polished in the US universities, create great jobs & assure quality of life for them within their country of birth......
    (nothing personal again, I just finished what i felt that Anand started & stopped short of completing....)


Saturday, April 13, 2013

Confessions of a VC on a Total Write-off

In a very candid entry on his blog, Bruce booth postulates on what could've gone wrong with the once highly promising Dx dream-venture, On-Q-ity - a must read!

http://lifescivc.com/2013/04/on-q-ity-a-cancer-diagnostic-company-r-i-p/

Below's the comment I posted on the above entry;

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Murali Apparaju2 hours ago




It's always painful to see a promise not living up to the faith of those who believed....

I'm not exactly sure, but what you said about recapitalization sounded like 'despite the value of the combined capital raised by the two merging ventures prior to 2009 was USD 31mio, the merged entity (On-Q-Ity) prior to investment was valued at USD5mio', To me this initial valuation (& disregard of capital) is where the deal started going wrong?? - wasn't this one of the risks flagged in 2009?

While not tranching the investment does look like the most probable reason for the VCs losing out on the return, I'm wondering what promise of return led to the VCs risking a USD 21mio investment upfront into a company wherein a cumulative capital of USD 31mio only resulted in a USD 5mio valuation? - probably there was something prophetic about the then CEO using a term "diagnostic blackhole" back in 2010..... (different context ofcourse..)

PS:
It'd be interesting to understand why the exit-route expectations involved "oncology focused Pharma M&A"?, consdiring Dual Capture OnQChip techonology wasn't really being worked on as a customizable companion diagnostic platform? OR was it?
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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Series A crunch for start-ups rooted in progressive de-risking of VC model?

My comment on a peHUB blog post titled "What Series A Crunch? Why Some Startups Are Immune"

-------------------------------

Keen insight John!

Interesting to note the theme of 'venture capital model being broken' is being evaluated from very different perspectives by different people – while I’d love to see the perspective of an LP on this, haven’t come across any till date…

Earlier in Feb 2013 when Drug Baron proposed Venture Capital 2.0 on his blog, I felt he placed the onus for this handicap on the VC firms themselves & hence proposed the need for a disruptive innovation of the venture model itself. I made a comment against this entry & posted the same on my blog under the title “What when the boundaries blur between VC & PE?

While my response was more from the angle of overt de-risking of VC funding being counter-productive to sustenance of early enterprise, I felt that in some fashion resonates with what you say here…., particularly when you quote Jim Andelman “these market dynamics combine to leave good companies unfunded”.

My comments incidentally remain ‘non-commented on’ on Drug baron’s blog :-)


Sunday, March 31, 2013

Factors Influencing the Global Prospects & Investor Attractiveness of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Most ‘Indian Pharma Outlook’ reports from the likes of McKinsey & PwC  almost exclusively focus their policy & regulatory scenario call-outs on aspects that bear an impact on entry & exit strategies of global pharmaceutical companies - which is understandable given they form the healthcare client-base of these consulting organizations. Not much information is however available when it comes to information on the policy & regulatory landscape within India that has a bearing on the commercial prospects of Indian pharmaceutical companies globally & one that can influence the investor sentiment/ emotion driving it.

Inspired by CNN Money’s beautifully minimal ‘Fear & Greed Index’, I set about categorizing and analysing the three most debated India-specific pharmaceutical policy & trade issues in the past few months. Thus categorized as low, elevated & high risk, these three issues broadly mapped out the boundaries of factors influencing ‘Global Prospects & Investor Attractiveness of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry”.


I
COUNTERFEIT MEDICINE
Lack of candor in acknowledging a local & global menace of counterfeit drugs

FDA website says “Counterfeit medicine is fake medicine. It may be contaminated or contain the wrong or no active ingredient. They could have the right active ingredient but at the wrong dose. Counterfeit drugs are illegal and may be harmful to your health” – While US Pharmacopeia broadly uses the same definition, it extends the scope of fake to the drugs that are “deliberately mislabelled” and with “fake-packaging” - Now, while the definitions do not say so, it is an inferred & accepted norm within the regulatory, federal & industry circles within USA, EU most other developed economies that any drug approved for a certain geography/ country if found to be distributed, marketed in another geography where it hasn’t obtained any approval makes that drug a counterfeit too.

In what could be explained within ten lines of text as above & given this is a definite public health issue, it’s confounding how so much energy is spent by so many espousing interpretations of varied hues on what doesn’t amount to a counterfeit. A recent news item in TOI showcases how a whole country’s credibility could take a beating with misinformed defence of an ill-articulated official position. The gentleman in the referred article states "Counterfeit is essentially an intellectual property issue referring to falsely packaged products that violate trademarks, but it is not necessarily about the quality of the medicine" - almost affecting that a counterfeit with a real API a lesser crime" – If this is indeed the official position of Indian on counterfeits, it sure needs work.

Factors at play

From the consumer’s perspective it could be Cost differential of counterfeits vis-à-vis’ branded formulations & No-hassles (online) access of Prescription drugs. From the counterfeiter’s perspective, it’s all about monetizing the existence of a vast ill-informed & gullible market 

& then there is this legacy of distrust & malice……

While there is/ was a definite basis to suspect & investigate role of India connection to the counterfeits, for a larger part of the last decade FDA, PhRMA, SOCMA & EFCG and the various allied task-forces went on an extended witch hunt, not entirely without dishonourable motives (read: SOCMA, EFCG; NA/ EU manufacturers losing out to outsourcing to India), for Indian knockoff offenders & in the bargain tarnishing the image of many ethical Indian organizations that in some instances were completely unaware of their product getting trans-shipped through parallel/ secondary import channels (ref. the PhRMA report on counterfeit drug statistics quoting 2008 data)


*Image courtsey: from a Forbes article about Indian companies adaptng the mobile verification systems in a big way

Pros & Cons

ZILCH: There can absolutely be nothing positive about;
  • A fake drug with a spurious drug &/OR
  • A counterfeit with a real drug &/OR
  • A true generic in an unauthorized territory 

CREDIBILITY: Any knee-jerk reactions such as the above, based impractically on a painful legacy, may end up sounding like a tacit Indian support to counterfeit industry and will severely harm the genuine promise Indian generic industry holds and is pursuing

PUBLIC HEALTH: The above cynical approach to addressing global concerns on counterfeits can easily get rubbed off within the Indian context & the consequent confusion can be used by counterfeiters to take root & rot the whole public health system within India

NET IMPACT ON INDIAN PHARMA:  This is a no-brainer really, with zero positive & two negatives; this is a present & imminent danger to the credibility of Indian pharmaceutical Industry.

What could Indian Pharmaceutical industry & policy makers do to address the above aspects/ issues?

Ironically a lot of Indian response to any dialog on counterfeits still seems to be based on the sole concept that some of the "real-API counterfeits' are traceable to India & many a time, without the manufacturing company realizing so  - while this may still be a relevant grouse, it still cannot be the sole discussion point whenever someone mentions counterfeits.
From a global perspective, Counterfeits, even if they use “real API” should still be eliminated from supply chain owing to the following consequences* (adapted from a USP DQI presentation) of their existence;
  • Diminished trust in health care system
  • Waste of financial resources
  • People go untreated—leads to prolonged illness or, possibly, death
  • Sub-potent treatment can lead to resistance and treatment failure

India Pharma Industry, policy makers should shed the baggage of the hurtful past & acknowledge explicitly to the world community that the above concerns are applicable for control of counterfeits on the Indian soil too & hence both internally & externally India will deal with all dialog on counterfeit medicine FIRST as a public safety debate & THEN as a trade debate.

Looking ahead

The regulators & industry in developed countries such as USA & EU, UK should also look beyond the greed-driven commerce as the trigger for the existence of counterfeits & acknowledge that the  reasons can be equally economical, triggered by the need for affordable medicine for the outlier population that is neither covered by the state nor by the insurance companies. This aspect is bound to be helped by the current winds of genericization blowing through USA & Europe and this trend will hopefully and naturally topple the cheap counterfeit applecart – Having said that tackling counterfeits should be the primary corporate social responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry worldwide.


II
COMPULSORY LICENSING
The not so surprising enthusiasm for the compulsory Licensing route to introduction of 'copy cats'

Back in March 2012, Natco Pharma opened the gates (or Pandora's box depending upon which side of fence one is..) with their successful bid for the Compulsory License of Sorafenib Tosylate (Nexavar) using the provisions set out in the TRIPS agreement. The recent endorsement of this decision by IPAB seems to have ushered-in the growth-phase of CLs with BDR Pharmaceuticals of Mumbai filing an application for Dasatinib and the grapevine says quite a few as this are lined up in the immediate future, in India & overseas.

While CLs are being looked into seriously by other developed countries too, what complicates it in the Indian context is the sheer price difference that makes the royalty on sales to the innovator a trifling formality and the sheer size of the lost opportunity for the innovator huge (size of Indian population).  The case-in-study being Nexavar again wherein Bayer’s price is 35 times the Natco’s price & the 7% royalty Bayer was granted, wouldn’t even pay for their lawyers fee at the initial sales volume.

Factors at play

Cost effective access to newer therapeutics in India, Compliance with global IPR norms (both prescribed & inferred) and last but not the least, A really big (read: 1.2 billion population) market opportunity, the surface of which has been hardly scratched.

Pros & Cons

SOCIA IMPACT:  The Indian population will have economical access to technologically superior later-date drugs

FINANCIAL IMPACT: Opening up of a new market in India for these newer therapies hitherto not adopted owing to a steep price barrier

CREDIBILITY: The Indian pharmaceutical industry's credibility will take a hit if the trend catches up in a big & uncontrolled fashion - The obvious impact will be a gradual deceleration of outsourcing to India & more specifically withdrawal of contract manufacturing of proprietary drugs in India by innovators affected by the CL (which could be all within a very short-span)

NET IMPACT ON INDIAN PHARMA: At the current stage, I’d believe Indian industry as a whole has more to lose w.r.t. loss of outsourcing pie than the money generated out of the CL drugs.

Also, despite a large price differential & given the drug use in India is still physician controlled & not state-sponsored or paid for by the insurers, the innovator companies are likely to resort to a sustained campaign through physicians to color the local copy-cat as a 'compromised medicine' & thus can significantly and negatively impact the Indian company's anticipated fortunes – Improbable as this may sound, this indeed happened a few years ago in the vaccine domain with the MNCs spoiling the retail-dreams of the local contenders using their sheer financial-muscle & reach to influence the physician** against the local vaccine.

**My daughter’s pediatrician forcefully opposed my suggestion to go-in for a Hep-B vaccine from a good Indian company & insisted that he wouldn't suggest we compromising on the quality of the vaccine and that we should instead opt for the pricier but reliable MNC  - Ironically, a decade later this Indian company was acquired by the very same MNC :-))

What could Indian Pharmaceutical industry & policy makers do to address the above aspects/ issues?

A transparent, public evaluation of the application & a greater scrutiny of the "need"/ "essentiality" of a certain new drug vis-a-vis further price rationalization drugs that have already fallen off the patent cliff.

Possession of validated process for the said drug by the applicant at the time of application to be deemed as an automatic disqualification - to mean, since this indicates that the applicant reaching out to the innovator for a licence has been done without an intent to get one & hence that refusal of a license by the innovator is not sufficient basis of the Indian generic company to go in for a CL route

In effect create a higher barrier to incoming applications & thus walling-out contestable awards that bring no incremental benefit neither to the industry nor to the consumer

Looking ahead

While at the face of it this may look like essentially an opportunity for Indian generic players, I tend to believe that pretty soon the global generic giants will join the game through strategic alliances, acquisitions et al & eventually even innovators would themselves monetize the trend by introducing authorized "cheap" generics - “Cheap” being the keyword, as it is eminently evident from the Nexavar price differential, a mere 20-30% reduction wouldn’t really sway the regulatory sentiment in favour of innovator.

III 
ENHANCED VISIBILITY
Gearing up for better transparency, eventually

Even as articulation of a position is still a challenge for India in some key policy areas as above, Visibility, mostly aided by cyberization of governance is getting bigger & better in India each day. While digital governance may be an emerging global phenomenon, what makes it unique in the Indian context is that this amounts to a tentative first step towards transparency, a beast that India is struggling to tame for many years now.

Specific to healthcare, within the past four months the Indian patent authority (CGPDTM) has issued draft guidelines for processing patent applications pertaining to Biotechnology; Biological Material & Traditional Knowledge. What makes this interesting is the public review & dialog to aid the process of finalizing the guidelines.

Factors at play

The acknowledgement of a consensus approach to policy making; The concept an of enforcement designed & driven by the stakeholder universe; An attempt to encourage innovation within India by providing clarity on patentability aspects & finally, a rather brave attempt to forestall patent walling-in attempts by companies & to prevent encroachments on traditional knowledge
The pros & cons

ENABLING BUSINESS CLIMATE – As a country that conducts business transactions in English, India already has an inherent advantage with respect to visibility & transparency. The increased digital visibility will go a long way in helping India consolidate this advantage & give a much needed differentiator vis-à-vis the omnipresent Chinese competition

IMPROVED BUSINESS ETHIC – Each step in this direction will help India better its ranking on the transparency international’s corruption index – in part the visibility through digital governance itself is an outcome of higher awareness, wariness of the Indian citizen towards corruption in public & corporate life

DELAYED POLICY MAKING – Though my initial thought was to say nothing negative here, I realize that the Indian problem with ‘clear articulation of a policy’ can be further compounded by the diversity of information received through feedback, debates et al & thus potentially delay the legislation of the guidelines

NET IMPACT ON INDIAN PHARMA – Overall any favourable changes in governance will always translate as a better business/ investor sentiment, eventually

What could Indian Pharmaceutical industry & policy makers do to address the above aspects/ issues?

Indian pharma would do good to dive head-long into this process of deliberation on policies; guidelines etc. and partake in creating an enabling framework. On their part, the policy makers, government should proactively solicit participation of Industry and fine-tune the guidelines in light of practical business considerations.

Looking ahead

As stated earlier, enhanced visibility is the tentative first step towards transparency – it’d be ideal for all stakeholders to do whatever they could to sustain this forward momentum & help India shed the stereotypical image of a difficult third world country.


While I stopped at three, there are some other important factors that can impact the prospects of Indian pharma in some measure - a quick visual representation of these factors is as follows;


One recurring theme in the above discussions is a need for emergence of clearly articulated and transparently evaluated policies which then could be implemented in spirit.

Where no other motivation works the lure of commerce does, well in most cases. While this may sound dogmatic, it is a valid reason for an economy increasingly dependent on globalization & externalization. I wish & hope the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry will play a major role in setting the house in order & thus achieve and sustain their much deserved success world-over.