IP law update
- AIDS drug patent faces Thai challenge
- AstraZeneca wins Prilosec suit
- EU Biotechs have work to do: Directive report
AIDS drug patent faces Thai challenge
9 October - Thai patients with HIV/AIDS and consumer activists have filed a new suit against Bristol-Myers Squibb, in an attempt to invalidate the company's patent over the drug Videx EC. The suit, filed in the country's Central Intellectual Property Court, claims that Videx is a mere combination of pre-existing compounds and so is not a true invention. The plaintiffs hope to free the way for other companies to produce cheaper generic versions of the drug to treat more of the country's one million HIV positive people. Bristol-Myers Squibb had developed the drug after licensing one of its active ingredients, didanosine, from the US National Institutes of Health. The company is defending its patent, claiming its inventiveness lies in increasing the drug's effectiveness by adding a buffering agent.
[Source: Associated Press - Uamdao Noikorn]
AstraZeneca wins Prilosec suit
14 October - AstraZeneca Plc has seen a significant rise in its share price, with the company experiencing an unexpected US patent case victory. The case, involving its ulcer drug Prilosec, was fought against generic manufacturer Andrx. A district judge has ruled that two key formulation patents are valid until 2007. As such, three generic firms were found to have infringed the patents. Investors had not been confident that AstraZeneca would succeed in the case, which would have sparked a price war over the popular drug. Last year, the drug earned $3.7bn in the US market alone. Now the company will only face competition from one non-infringing company, the German drug group Schwarz Pharma AG. Andrx, which holds generic marketing rights from the US FDA, has indicated it is likely to appeal the decision.
[Source: Reuters - Ben Hirschler]
EU Biotechs have work to do: Directive report
10 October - A new report from the European Commission on the implementation of the 1998 Directive on the Legal Protection of Biotechnological Inventions argues that member states must move to implement the directive or face falling behind competitors. This report is the first in what is to be an annual series of Commission reports, as required by article 16c of the Directive. The report, which also addresses key provisions of the directive such as the patenting of animals and elements isolated from the human body, also claims a need to revisit controversial issues in patenting. Therefore, the Commission is to establish a group of experts in economics, law and science to examine these issues from a legal and scientific perspective, and to assist in preparing future reports. Two areas specifically identified in the report as requiring further analysis are the patenting of gene sequences isolated from humans and the patenting of human stem cells.
[Source: Human Genetics News]
