Title: India and China as partner of choice for the Western multinational companies in the era of globalisation

Authors: Rakhi Rashmi

Addresses: GREDEG-CNRS, 250, rue Albert Einstein, 06560 Valbonne, France

Abstract: By the Patent Amendment Act 2005, India approved Trade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and implemented product patent protection for pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical products. China, too, at the end of 2002 enacted regulations to strengthen pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical patents. The change in the patent regimes demand that both these countries biopharmaceutical industries which are basically generic industries to shift from generic manufacturing to novel drug manufacturing. Although due to generic manufacturing base, these countries are able to offer cost-efficient discovery research, testing and manufacturing support to western multinationals. On the other hand, the rising cost and continuous risk involved in drug development process making the western MNCs to head towards Asia for collaboration. The paper explores the best partner of choice between India and China for the multinational companies by analysing the relative strength of the parameter suggested by John Dunning for making the foreign investment.

Keywords: India; China; foreign direct investment; FDI; biopharmaceutical industry; globalisation; TRIPS; international agreements; trade related aspects; intellectual property rights; World Trade Organization; WTO; multinational corporations; MNCs; partnerships; drugs; medicines; Indian legislation; product patents; pharmaceutical industry; patent protection; patent regimes; generic industries; generic manufacturing; novel drugs; cost-efficient research; discovery research; R&D; research and development; product testing; manufacturing support; western multinationals; rising costs; continuous risk; Asia; John Dunning; learning; intellectual capital; management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2011.039443

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2011 Vol.8 No.2, pp.128 - 154

Published online: 27 Nov 2014 *

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