India and the Patent Wars: Pharmaceuticals in the New Intellectual Property Regime (The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work)

__India and the Patent Wars__ examines struggles over patents and access to medicine among pharmaceutical producers, activists and others under a new global intellectual property regime. India, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical exporters, has been at the center of these struggles, and this book explores multiple perspectives in these controversies including those of Indian pharmaceutical companies, which have long offered low-cost medicines to customers around the world, multinational pharmaceutical companies, which pursue patent claims in Indian courts and license drugs to Indian producers, and practitioners of ayurveda, India’s largest indigenous medical system, who are concerned about how their knowledge and practices relate to the new patent system. India And The Patent Wars Contributes To An International Debate Over The Costs Of Medicine And Restrictions On Access Under Stringent Patent Laws Showing How Activists And Drug Companies In Low-income Countries Seize Agency And Exert Influence Over These Processes. Murphy Halliburton Contributes To Analyses Of Globalization Within The Fields Of Anthropology, Sociology, Law, And Public Health By Drawing On Interviews And Ethnographic Work With Pharmaceutical Producers In India And The United States. India Has Been At The Center Of Emerging Controversies Around Patent Rights Related To Pharmaceutical Production And Local Medical Knowledge. Halliburton Shows That Big Pharma Is Not All-powerful, And That Local Activists And Practitioners Of Ayurveda, India's Largest Indigenous Medical System, Have Been Able To Undermine The Aspirations Of Multinational Companies And The Wto. Halliburton Traces How Key Drug Prices Have Gone Down, Not Up, In Low-income Countries Under The New Patent Regime Through Partnerships Between Us- And India-based Companies, But Warns Us To Be Aware Of Access To Essential Medicines In Low- And Middle-income Countries Going Forward. The Invention And Expansion Of Intellectual Property -- The New Patent Regime : The Activists And Their Allies -- Ayurvedic Dilemmas : Innovation, Ownership, And Resistance -- The Gilead Model And The Perspective Of Big Pharma -- The View From Hyderabad : The Indian Pharmaceutical Industry And The New Patent Regime. Murphy Halliburton. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.

India and the Patent Wars contributes to an international debate over the costs of medicine and restrictions on access under stringent patent laws showing how activists and drug companies in low-income countries seize agency and exert influence over these processes. Murphy Halliburton contributes to analyses of globalization within the fields of anthropology, sociology, law, and public health by drawing on interviews and ethnographic work with pharmaceutical producers in India and the United States.

India has been at the center of emerging controversies around patent rights related to pharmaceutical production and local medical knowledge. Halliburton shows that Big Pharma is not all-powerful, and that local activists and practitioners of ayurveda, India’s largest indigenous medical system, have been able to undermine the aspirations of multinational companies and the WTO. Halliburton traces how key drug prices have gone down, not up, in low-income countries under the new patent regime through partnerships between US- and India-based companies, but warns us to be aware of access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries going forward.

India and the Patent War s contributes to an international debate over the costs of medicine and restrictions on access under stringent patent laws showing how activists and drug companies in low-income countries seize agency and exert influence over these processes. Murphy Halliburton contributes to analyses of globalization within the fields of anthropology, sociology, law, and public health by drawing on interviews and ethnographic work with pharmaceutical producers in India and the United States. India has been at the center of emerging controversies around patent rights related to pharmaceutical production and local medical knowledge. Halliburton shows that Big Pharma is not all-powerful, and that local activists and practitioners of ayurveda, India's largest indigenous medical system, have been able to undermine the aspirations of multinational companies and the WTO. Halliburton traces how key drug prices have gone down, not up, in low-income countries under the new patent regime through partnerships between US- and India-based companies, but warns us to be aware of access to essential medicines in low- and middle-income countries going forward. India and the Patent Wars examines struggles over patents and access to medicine among pharmaceutical producers, activists and others under a new global intellectual property regime. In the past two decades, intellectual property rights have expanded throughout the globe creating a world in which protections for patents and copyrights have increased and a growing range of knowledge and practices are claimed as property. Driving these changes are U.S. court decisions, the policies of multinational corporations, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Resistance to this regime has emerged in low-income countries among public health activists concerned about the rising cost of medicines for HIV/AIDS and indigenous peoples who now see their knowledge as vulnerable and pursue ownership claims for their medical and cultural practices.