[Ip-health] Compulsory licensing of patents: Communique issued by the French Minister for Research, Paris 07.09.2001

[James Packard Love]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
This statement from the French Minister for Research is more than 5
years old, but quite relevant today, as some have questioned the
Thailand government's decisions to issue compulsory licenses on
medicines for diseases other than AIDS.   In some countries,
including France, Belgium and the African members of the Bangui
agreement, ex officio licenses are a type of compulsory licenses
issued by the government (rather than a judge), to achieve public
policy objectives.   In the middle of a dispute over the overreaching
patent claims by Myriad, on patents relevant to testing for genes
related to breast cancer,  M. Roger-Gerard Schwartzenberg, French
Minister for Research, said:

* Indeed, the bill transposing the 1998 European directive on the
legal protection of biotechnological innovations will very soon be
submitted to the Council of Ministers. This bill amends Article L
613-16 of the Intellectual Property Code, broadening the system for
ex officio licences issued by the State to include patents on
diagnostic processes, whilst at the moment it applies only to medicines.

* From now on, where the interests of public health demand, in the
event of a diagnostic test being made available to the public in
insufficient quantity, of inadequate quality or at an abnormally high
price, the State will be able to make this test subject to an ex
officio licence.

*  This way, use of this test will not be restricted by an unfair
monopoly of the patent-holder. Genetic screening must be available to
help everyone, without access to a diagnostic test being
unjustifiably hindered by unfair claims to a monopoly and excessive
costs./.

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Note the emphasis on issues of excessive prices.  Subsequently the
French and Belgium governments did amend their patent laws to provide
for more liberal compulsory licenses for patents relevant to
diagnostic testings.  Jamie

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http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/Myriad-Genetics-diagnostic-testing.html

Myriad Genetics=92 diagnostic testing - Communique issued by the
Minister for Research, Paris 07.09.2001

"Considering an ex officio licence" - Communique issued by M. Roger-
Gerard Schwartzenberg, Minister for Research

I support the opposition proceedings instigated by the Curie
Institute against the patent which the European Patent Office has
unjustifiably granted Myriad Genetics.

Firstly, this patent does not fulfill the conditions of novelty and
inventiveness always required for patentability. Secondly, its
excessively wide scope gives the holder an unfair monopoly and
prohibits development of other screening tests using the same gene
sequence, thus hindering further research.

Moreover, if Myriad Genetics persisted in refusing to issue a licence
under the patent permitting tests to be carried out in France, we
might consider compelling them to do so. Indeed, we have provided for
a legal way of countering this type of abuse.

Indeed, the bill transposing the 1998 European directive on the legal
protection of biotechnological innovations will very soon be
submitted to the Council of Ministers. This bill amends Article L
613-16 of the Intellectual Property Code, broadening the system for
ex officio licences issued by the State to include patents on
diagnostic processes, whilst at the moment it applies only to medicines.

 From now on, where the interests of public health demand, in the
event of a diagnostic test being made available to the public in
insufficient quantity, of inadequate quality or at an abnormally high
price, the State will be able to make this test subject to an ex
officio licence.

This way, use of this test will not be restricted by an unfair
monopoly of the patent-holder. Genetic screening must be available to
help everyone, without access to a diagnostic test being
unjustifiably hindered by unfair claims to a monopoly and excessive
costs./.



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James Packard Love
Knowledge Ecology International
http://www.keionline.org
james.love@keionline.org
Washington, DC +1.202.332.2670

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks." Bill Walton"