EU-Canada trade talks include "harmful" IP provisions: Teva exec
This article was originally published in SRA
The EU has tabled "harmful" intellectual property measures as part of its discussions under the Canada-EU trade talks, according to Barry Fishman, president and chief executive of Teva Canada.
Mr Fishman, who was addressing the 13th annual conference of the International Generic Pharmaceutical Alliance (IGPA) in Mumbai, India, said that the proposed measures would both delay the entry of low-cost generics and add "significant" costs to the Canadian healthcare system1.
Mr Fishman, who also chairs the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, noted that the proposed changes "cherry-pick" certain EU provisions and the EU proposals would make Canada's pharmaceutical IP regime more restrictive to generic product entries than those of both the EU and US.
"Canada's IP regime includes a data protection period longer than the US – eight years in Canada versus five in the US," he said, adding that Canada's IP regime already exceeds international trade obligations.
Some reports in the international media have suggested that proposals being pushed through the talks for a comprehensive economic and trade agreement include one to increase the data protection period in Canada by about two years, while a more contentious aim concerns brand companies seeking a right to appeal if their claim to patent infringement (against generics companies) is turned down. "Effectively this would add at least another couple of years to their competition-free ride," the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), one of Canada's largest labour organisations, said in October2.
Generic litigation has driven early entries of cut-price versions of medicines in Canada, and some estimates suggest that eight out of the top ten best-selling generics, including omeprazole and citalopram, launched ahead of patent expiry have saved Canadian payers more than $7 billion.
NUPGE, which has expressed concern over big brand name pharma companies' attempts to use the trade deal to expand their patent protection rights, said that large branded firms are also keen that Canadian customs officers be able to seize drug shipments "if there is even a suspicion, or an unproven complaint" by a drug company that the shipment "somehow" violates a patent right.
NUPGE had claimed that, while the proposals "wouldn't stand a chance" in Canada's parliament, the brand name drug giants wanted to use the proposed Canada-EU trade deal to get "what they couldn't get directly".
Currently Canada is the EU's 11th-largest trading partner, accounting for about 1.8% of the EU's total external trade in 2009, while the EU is Canada's second most important trading partner after the US, with a 10.5% share of its total external trade.
References
1. Barry Fishman, 13th Annual IGPA Conference, Mumbai, India, 8-10 December 2010
2. NUPGE press release, 25 October 2010, www.nupge.ca/content/3681/nupge-concerned-big-pharma-trying-sway-ceta-negotiations-attempt-fatten-profits