Pfizer's assistant general patent counsel J Trevor Lumb, told Indo-US Joint Business Council meeting here on Monday that India can attract multinational investment and foster growth of its domestic industry "Only if it has a strong intellectual property rights (IPRs) regime in place." However, he sought to allay fears about traditional Indian medicines being patented by multinational companies by stating that since the patents law were prospective, they did not attract applications for patents from foreign companies.

"The key factor which weighs heavily with MNCs before they take a decision to invest in another country is protection of patents," Lumb said at an investment summit organised by the Council. In the absence of product patents, MNCs are wary about introducing the latest drugs in the Indian market as their inventions could get easily replicated, he observed.

Pointing to the meteoric growth of the software industry due to the upgradation of copyright laws in the country, he called for similar initiatives in regard to patents so that it could nurture and harness the pool of scientific talent. Lumb sought to dispel fears that patents would make drugs expensive by saying that prices of existing medicines would not be affected and that only new medicines might become costly due to the 20 year patent protection afforded under TRIPS.

Citing the `Duty of disclosure' clause under the US patent law, he said the onus of telling the patent office what the prospective patent seeker knew about the new invention lay with the latter and that patent is granted only for the creation of something new or a new chemical entity.