121. The representative of India said that India's Patent Act had been amended in April 2005 to further clarify its legislation to ensure that drugs made locally continued to be available at affordable prices to all citizens in India and other developing countries, particularly least-developed countries, in conformity with the Decision. The recent amendments to the patent law and rules had been notified to the WTO and were available as documents IP/N/1/IND/D/2 to D/5. He highlighted two changes in the law which were particularly relevant for the discussions on the TRIPS Agreement and public health. First, the new Section 92(a) of the Patents Act enabled the manufacture for export of generic versions of patented pharmaceutical products to countries with no or insufficient manufacturing capacity, thus using the flexibility provided for in the Decision. His delegation hoped that this provision would be useful for other developing countries, and in particular least-developed countries, as it imposed minimal requirements on the recipient countries. Second, Section 90(1) of the Patents Act had been amended to clarify that products made under compulsory licences, granted predominantly for the supply of the domestic market, could also be exported. Thus, while Section 92(a) incorporated the flexibilities provided in the Decision to manufacture specifically and only for export, the standard compulsory licences could also be used to satisfy export demands where those occurred next to domestic demands.
