ISREAL: New debate about "Barriers to entry of generic drugs"

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

This is from Jerome Dumouln <JEROME.DUMOULIN@UPMF-GRENOBLE.FR>

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jamie,
New debate about "Barriers to entry of generic drugs"

BMJ No 7133 Volume 316 

News Saturday 7 March 1998 
(http://www.bmj.com/archive/7133/7133n6.htm)

Israel's patent law criticised

Israel's newly amended patent law, which will allow pharmaceutical
companies
to develop generic versions of patented drugs before their patents
expire,
has aroused sharp criticism from the European Union (EU) and the
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). 

EU officials have warned that the legislation violates patent rights and
international treaties to which Israel is a signatory. US patent lawyer
Richard Luthi claimed that the law would turn Israel into a copycat
country
for drugs, allowing generic drug companies to register products in North
America before their patents have expired in the local market. 

Thomas Bombelles, a spokesman for the PhRMA, said that his group would
take
action against the amendment but added that it was too early to say what
steps would be taken, while EU officials said that two European
companies
had already decided to freeze their investments in Israel. However,
Israeli
government officials and major pharmaceutical companies denied the
charges, declaring that the amendment merely equalised Israel's laws
with
those in the United States. 

In 1986 the pharmaceutical firm Hoffmann-La Roche sued an American
generic
drug company for conducting research and development on drugs during the
life of the patent. The US Congress then passed a law allowing generic
drug
companies to try to copy patented drugs during the 20 year life of the
patent, but it also extended the life of the patent by a few years to
cover
the time invested by the company in developing the medication. As a
result
of this law, the American generic drug industry boomed, causing prices
to
drop. "What the US did in 1984, Israel has done in 1998, and Australia
plans
to do the same," said Dr Aharon Schwartz, a vice president of Teva,
Israel's
largest pharmaceutical company. Europe, he added, had no need for
such a law because its patented medications are under strict price
controls. 

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich 
Jerusalem
Jerome Dumoulin
Institut de Recherche Economique sur la Production et le Developpement
Universite Pierre Mendes France
BP 47
F-38040 GRENOBLE Cedex 09
tel 33 4 76 82 54 50
fax 33 4 76 82 59 89
http://www.upmf-grenoble.fr/irepd