New patent rights of drugs suspended
The government has suspended the issuance of new patent rights of medicines and agricultural chemicals, as the country is exempted from issuing patent registrations until 2016 under a WTO deal.
The decision has sparked a debate between local and foreign pharmaceutical companies. The government took the decision in the light of the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
Local pharmaceutical companies that usually produce generic drugs welcomed the decision while the multinationals see it as a barrier to the development of the industry in Bangladesh.
A circular issued by the Department of Patent, Design and Trademarks in January said as per the TRIPS agreement all applications for patents of medicines and agricultural chemicals will be kept suspended until January 01, 2016.
It said the previous applications as well as fresh applications relating to patents for medicines and agricultural chemicals will be preserved in a 'mail box' and will be considered after the expiry of the deadline.
Local pharmaceuticals companies had long been demanding the patent registration suspension under the WTO deal.
The government decision will help local medicine industry, Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceuticals Industries General Secretary Nazmul Hasan said yesterday.
Moreover, patent protection increases products prices, said Hasan, also chief executive officer of Beximco Pharmaceuticals.
Ashfaque ur Rahman, managing director of Novartis (Bangladesh) Limited, said, “Bangladesh will be benefited in terms strength of the sector if patent registration continues. Other countries will evaluate the situation that Bangladesh has a strong base of patent regime and its products carry specific standards."
Patenting of any pharmaceutical process is a must to maintain product standards, Rahman added.
Another executive of a multinational company said Bangladesh will not get any new formula because of the suspension.
Despite the WTO waiver of patent-protection obligations for the least developed countries (LDCs), a number of multinational pharmaceutical companies got their drugs patented in the last few years.
The WTO Council on Intellectual Property Rights on June 27, 2002 defined the period up to 2016 as a transitional one, during which the LDCs would not be needed to provide patent protection for pharmaceutical products.
It also waived the exclusive marketing right of any new drug of its manufacturer during the period in case of the LDCs.
Hasan said the multinationals will not be able to patent their formula in Bangladesh due to the waiver given to the LDCs under the WTO agreement.
On average, Hasan said, the patent office issues 300 patents for formula and products a year and 90 percent of them are owned by multinationals.
In 2007, the department registered 225 foreign patent applications of which 50 percent are multinational pharmaceutical formula.
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