[Ip-health] BiotechEast Co., Ltd: (Taiwan) Patent law changes to open door to export of generic Tamiflu?

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

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*(Taiwan) Patent law changes to open door to export of generic Tamiflu?*



31 August, 2006
News that Taiwan intends to amend local IP laws to allow for patented
drugs manufactured locally to be exported to poorer countries appears to
be aimed at building a revenue model into the manufacture in Taiwan of
generic Tamiflu under so-called 'compulsory license.'

As recently reported in local media, the Intellectual Property Office of
the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Department of Health (DOH) and the Bureau of Foreign Trade together
reached an agreement on the amendment to Article 76 of Taiwan's Patent
Law, regarding so-called 'mandatory authorization.' The new provision
will relax regulations on drug exportation, so that upon the request of
poorer countries, local drug companies may manufacture and export drugs
to those countries without the consent of the patent holders, usually
Big Pharma. As such, these medicines would be available at a much
cheaper price than their authorized versions.

This amendment seems custom-designed to allow companies which are making
generic Tamiflu for Taiwan's DOH under compulsory license conditions to
make extra money from their participation in the project. And it seems
to contradict the DOH's earlier statement made when it enacting
compulsory licensing conditions in November 2005, when it said that any
Taiwan-made generic Tamiflu was strictly for local use only and would
not be exported to any other country.

With this earlier position designed to allow for the slightest chance of
restarted negotiations with Tamiflu patent-holder Roche, the realization
that it probably will not now receive an authorized manufacturing
sublicense has the Taiwan government and companies contracted to it now
looking for as many ways to benefit from the project as possible.

Such benefits are not only financial but also diplomatic--an important
consideration from diplomatically=96isolated Taiwan. This is evidenced by
the recognition Taiwan received in international media with its donation
to Vietnam in September 2005 of 600,000 doses of genuine Tamiflu.