Category Health & IP

Indian High Court Rejects Bayer Complaint For Patent Linkage

Indian generics manufacturer Cipla can get marketing approval for its generic cancer treatment Soranib, the Delhi High Court ruled Tuesday, and the Indian drug regulatory authority does not have to check its patent status first. The court this week rejected a complaint by drug multinational Bayer against the Union of India, the Drug Controller General of India and generic drug producer Cipla.

Bayer sought a court order requiring DCGI to consider the patent status of kidney cancer drug, sorafenib tosylate (sold under the brand name Nexavar), before granting marketing approval for a generic version of the drug.

At issue was whether it is legitimate to link a potential violation of IP rights to processes regulating a drug’s entry onto the market that are generally based on drug quality, efficacy and safety.

ECOSOC Adopts Resolutions On Digital Divide, HIV/AIDS, But Hurdles Remain

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) this week is concluding a month-long coordinating body meeting in Geneva by adopting resolutions on a range of public policy issues such as internet connectivity, science and technology, and HIV/AIDS.

US Biologics Debate Heats Up As Congress, Obama, Wrangle With Healthcare Reform

As the United States Congress prepares to recess in early August, there's hope - and dread, depending on which “side” of the debate you’re on - that legislation creating a regulatory pathway for follow-on biologics may be pushed through as part of the broader healthcare reform package.

EU Report Finds Fault With US Barriers To IP

The European Commission on Monday released a report finding fault with a number of United States practices related to intellectual property rights policy, on copyright, geographical indications, trademarks and patents. The report is an answer, one might say, to the US Special 301 report that criticises US trading partners it deems unilaterally to be insufficiently protecting its companies’ IP rights.

Life-Saving Mosquito Nets Subject Of Tiff Over Trade Secrets

COPENHAGEN - While sales of insecticide-treated bed nets have skyrocketed in recent years and boosting their use is among the UN Millennium Development Goals, two producers of the nets have been caught in a rigorous legal case involving trade secrets. Now the English High Court has ruled that one of the companies, Bestnet, has misused the trade secrets of the other company, Vestergaard Frandsen (VF).

ECOSOC Calls For Intensified Efforts On Public Health And Use Of TRIPS Flexibilities

The United Nations Economic and Social Council, a key coordinating body meeting this summer in Geneva, is considering ways to move nations faster toward global public health goals, with a warning from developing countries that intellectual property rights should not interfere with access to medical products and innovation.

Conference May Boost WIPO Mandate On Food Security, Public Health

A conference at the World Intellectual Property Organization exploring and clarifying the connection between its work and several major public policy issues ended Tuesday with a look at public health and food security.

WCO Kills “SECURE” Group, But Creates Health Enforcement Mandate

The World Customs Organization at its annual assembly in late June replaced a controversial group on counterfeiting and piracy with a softer dialogue mechanism that may defuse earlier concerns of potential overreaching on intellectual property infringement by customs officials. But it added a new mandate on health to a separate committee on enforcement that could raise new concerns.

EU Finds Anti-Competitive Abuse Of Pharmaceutical Patents, Launches Antitrust Action

Pharmaceutical companies are manipulating the intellectual property rights system and are “actively trying to delay the entry of generic medicines onto their markets,” a top EU official said of an EU inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector released Wednesday. As a result, there has been a decline in the number of innovative medicines getting to the market, it says.