Evergreening: An Equivocal Affair in Pharmaceutical Industries

Laws protecting the intellectual property (IP) are one of the most obscurely defined laws. All the members of the World Trade Organization abide by the legal agreement signed between the countries to regulate the IP rights between the member countries known as Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Developing countries especially India amended the Patent Act in 2005 in order to strengthen its administration revolving around IP Rights and tuned it according to the TRIPs Agreement, with an exceptional spotlight on the pharmaceuticals. The main idea behind this amendment was to prevent the process called evergreening. Evergreening is a process where pharmaceutical industries try to extend the duration of a patent under the disguise of increasing the therapeutic efficiency of the drug. Public access to the patented drug can also increase as an outcome of this act by shunning redundant guarding to the inventor. India pledged to curb evergreening which was evidently observed by the recent Supreme Court verdict on the case of Novartis AG v. Union of India (UOI) and Ors. The aim of this chapter is to provide a clear understanding of evergreening so that an unbiased view can be established both towards the best of public interest and protection of the inventor’s right.