Original news and analysis on international IP policy
The World Health Organization has released a new report showing that significant progress has been made to build national and global preparedness for future influenza pandemics. This progress resulted from the collaborative multi-sectoral implementation of a WHO plan, funded by the benefit-sharing contributions of industry partners, to strengthen global health security against pandemic influenza.
The European Parliamentary Committees on Health and Trade have each voted in recent weeks to adopt amendments to the proposed Special Protection Certificate (SPC) manufacturing waiver, an intellectual property exception for the EU generic and biosimilar industry. The amendments include provisions that push the waiver toward increasing EU generic and biosimilar industry competitiveness in EU markets, and improving access for EU patients to affordable medicines. The waiver and amendments still have several hurdles to go, including a vote by the Legal Affairs Committee planned for January.
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has granted its first accelerated patent under its new FinTech Fast Track initiative last week to Voyager Innovations, a technology company based in Southeast Asia, according to an IPOS press release. “While patent…
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released a new report that presents policy options for countries to strike a better balance between promoting financial incentives for pharmaceutical innovation and ensuring affordable access to medicines. Finding this balance, the report explains, will be essential for ensuring the sustainability of health systems.
NEW YORK -- United States intellectual property stakeholders from academic, business and legal backgrounds gathered recently to discuss how to increase public support to strengthen the intellectual property rights system in the US, in light of China’s steady rise in numbers of patent and trademark filings. US IP stakeholders argued that developing public awareness and understanding of IP is key to building this support, with some holding diverging views on how to go about this.
Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK) released a new study yesterday showing that the rheumatoid arthritis drug Enbrel has been overpatented by drugmaker Amgen, which has filed a total of 57 patents on the drug in the United States. Together, these patents were said to delay market competition by 39 years, rather than the standard 20 years for one patent. The study found that this market exclusivity for Enbrel resulted in US$ 8 billion dollars in sales in 2017 alone.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative's (USTR) latest update of its "Section 301" investigation of China's alleged theft and manipulation of US intellectual property rights, technology transfer, and trade secrets released today contains a litany of cases of China's nefarious behaviour in the US as well as Europe, Japan, Australia and elsewhere.
The European Commission has proposed an exception to the extended period of patent protection that the European Union provides to original drug manufacturers for certain products, in order to boost the competitiveness of EU generic and biosimilar industries in global markets. The exception will allow EU generic and biosimilar companies to manufacture protected drugs for export during this patent extension period. Stakeholders are so far unhappy with the exception. Meanwhile, studies analyse its potential economic impacts and legal implications, and the Commission remains confident that safeguards it is putting in place will keep the lower-priced medicines from making their way back into the EU.
SHANGHAI, China -- The President of China, Xi Jinping, in a keynote address on 5 November to political and business leaders attending the opening of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai sent a strong diplomatic signal that Beijing will push ahead with further opening up of the economy to more international competition. In a move to try and ease US-Sino tensions Xi also indicated China will take proactive steps to boost protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs), including harsher penalties against violators - a major grievance for the United States and the pivotal issue in the escalating trade war between the world's two largest economies.
NEW YORK – Major changes are coming to the makeup of the US Congress from the perspective of intellectual property policy, and while it may translate into more patent-friendly officials, the prospect for legislation is uneven, a panel of IP experts told a private sector conference here last week.