In the pharmaceutical industry, product patents and brands have long been identified as the main reasons for high drug prices, and governments have been attempting to regulate them since the 1960s. However, in the Indian context, the debate over drug prices has mostly focused on attempts to regulate product patents through policies, completely overlooking issues related to brands. While the research has examined the history of drug price control policies in the 1960s and beyond, it has yet to explore the policy’s links to regulating brands. It has also not investigated if policies went beyond price controls in regulating brands, such as with generic drug use. This study fills this gap by examining the Tariff Commission Report, 1968. Findings show that the report not only favoured regulating brands at the price level but also through generic drugs, with the industry resisting government efforts in the latter. Furthermore, resistance by all major industry players (multinational corporations and Indian drug companies (IDCs)) underscored the importance of brands to both of them. The similarity in their stances was in contrast to their positions on product patents, where they were on opposite sides. New questions emerge in light of these findings, especially in terms of how brands fared in the absence of product patents (between 1972 and 2005) and also how the industry responded to the government’s regulatory efforts during this period. Finally, the study highlights the importance of the Tariff Commission Report, especially as a policy-driven attempt to regulate brands, which future studies may explore further.
