The patent laws of many countries have ''research exemption'' provisions that exempt certain research-related uses of proprietary materials from patent infringement. By limiting the rights of existing patent holders, such rules are meant to facilitate follow-on innovation and benefit latecomer...

For more than a decade, China has been the world's leading supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Today, it is not only the world's second largest pharmaceutical market, behind only the United States, but it also produces about four percent of the world's new pharmaceutical products....