Earlier, the Indian system for providing for process patents in this sector allowed domestic producers to make products that had been developed elsewhere using their own processes, or methods of production, without paying royalties.

This meant that Indian drugs have been among the cheapest in the world. The new patents regime would not allow this. They would force domestic produceers to pay large royalties or even to go out of business, and thus expose the Indian market for life-saving and other drugs to the mercy of large multinational producers. Certain facts that come to light are:

1. The prices of the patented drugs are maintained exhorbitantly high throughout the entire patent term.
2. The impact of high drug prices will be felt most with respect to life-threatening ailments like AIDS, HIV, Cancer, resistent malaria, T.B. etc. from which poor millions suffer the most.
3. Such patients may even expire before the patent term.