Officials in the chemicals and fertilisers ministry told The Financial Express that WTO being only an agreement and not law, EMRs would not make much of an impact on India at least for the present. However, they hastened to add that said such a protected environment would persist only till the Indian Patent Act remained intact. After the Act was amended the real impact would be far reaching.

As far as the drugs and pharmaceuticals sector was concerned, as of now, nothing can be imported unless the directorate dealing with the sector gave approval, the officials said. Moreover, the IPA permitted only process and not product patenting. There is time up to 2005 to work out modalities, they pointed out.

Under the EMR regime a multinational in any sector can have EMRs forany product. Domestic units face the danger of getting marginalised unless they become competitive enough to face the MNC onsluaght, they said.

But the Bulk Drug ManufacturersÕ Association (BDMA) have expressed the view that India being a signatory to WTO, there is no way the country can remain unaffected. It may be noted that certain pharmaceutical industry champions have gone on record saying that that EMRs could be allowed right away without waiting up to 2005. But, in view of the inevitable price spiral that will follow, many in the industry are keen to put implementation of EMRs off for as long as is possible.