How is the Government of India protecting traditional knowledge of medicine from patenting by pharmaceutical companies?

Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL)

• TKDL is a joint Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Ministry of AYUSH project. It transcribes formulations from classical texts into structured, searchable, multilingual records (including patent-examiner languages).
• India has access agreements with major patent offices (including the European Patent Office and others) so examiners can find prior art and refuse or narrow claims.
• This is defensive publication: the knowledge is documented so it is not “novel”. It does not by itself pay the village that kept the plant.
• Documented wins after earlier disputes: turmeric (wound healing), neem (fungicidal properties), and Basmati rice lines were fought in foreign offices; TKDL was built so the next examiner sees the text before a grant.

Patent law inside India

• Patents Act, 1970 (as amended): section 3(p) excludes an invention which in effect is traditional knowledge or an aggregation of known properties of traditionally known components.
• Section 3(d) blocks evergreening of known substances unless there is a new therapeutic efficacy — relevant when a firm slightly modifies a known plant isolate.
• Section 3(e) and other clauses limit mere admixtures. Pre-grant and post-grant opposition let CSIR, AYUSH, or public-interest groups challenge a claim.
• Disclosure of biological material and geographical origin in the application supports examination.

Biodiversity and community tools

• Biological Diversity Act, 2002: National Biodiversity Authority and State boards regulate access to Indian biological resources and associated knowledge; prior approval and benefit-sharing are required for certain research, patents, and commercial use, especially involving foreigners or specified firms.
• People’s Biodiversity Registers record local knowledge at panchayat scale — a grassroots prior-art layer if they are actually maintained.
• Geographical Indications (for example on some agricultural and traditional goods) protect names, not medical formulae, but they stop a foreign brand from capturing a place-linked product.
• Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing sits behind the same logic internationally.

Institutions and positive protection

• Ministry of AYUSH, pharmacopoeias, and research councils (CCRAS and others) standardise and clinically test, so the knowledge can be used as a public system, not only as a patent shield.
• Yoga and some well-known practices were also the target of foreign patent attempts; documentation and diplomatic protest were the response.

Limits and recommendations

• TKDL covers codified classical texts better than undocumented tribal medicine. Expand community registers with consent and benefit-sharing, not extraction.
• Defensive protection stops a bad patent; it does not create an Indian product or a royalty for the holder of the knowledge. Pair TKDL with NBA contracts and public-sector formulation brands.
• Watch evergreening of isolates and process patents that skirt 3(p).
• Harmonise speed of NBA clearance so genuine research is not driven underground while pirates still file abroad.
• Train more examiners on TKDL and keep the library updated in more languages and oral traditions (with ethics).