Abstract

Covid 19 can be termed as an unnerving catastrophe of this millennium that turned the lives of everyone over the globe upside down. It was almost hundred years since the whole globe experienced such a pandemic after the outbreak of the Spanish flu of 1910. During the starting of the pandemic, the world had no idea on how to contain this deadly virus. The lack of preparation and drugs took the lives of millions. South Asian countries especially China, the European countries including Spain, Italy and even the most developed country, the USA became a graveyard during this time. The containment of the pandemic at any cost prioritising the ‘life’ for ‘living’, gradual shift to phased prioritisation of ‘living’ with ‘no sacrifice of human life’, finding the effective cure for the affected by promoting, supporting, encouraging innovations in the field, global cooperation in ensuring the availability, accessibility and affordability of the health care facilities and a host of challenges are being addressed both at the global level and the national level. The patent system, while incentivising the innovator, has structured itself to take care of the health emergency of the kind. The paper examines the Indian Patent system that can be utilised at every stage of challenge by the Government to ensure that availability, accessibility and affordability of health care products and processes gets top priority. In an emergency of this magnitude, can international obligations of enforcement of IPR be suspended by the member state is also addressed by the paper.

Keywords