P
pthakur
Guest
Pharmaceutical sector inquiry highlights cost of pharma companies'
delaying tactics: European Commission
The European Commission has published its preliminary report on the
competition inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector, which finds that
competition in this industry does not work as well as it should.
According to the preliminary findings there is evidence that
originator companies have engaged in practices with the objective of
delaying or blocking market entry of competing medicines. Practices
vis-ŕ-vis generic companies include multiple patent applications for
the same medicine (so-called patent clusters), initiation of disputes
and litigation, conclusion of patent settlements which constrain
market entry of generic companies and interventions before national
authorities when generic companies ask for regulatory approvals. Where
successful, these practices result in significant additional costs for
public health budgets and ultimately taxpayers and patients and
reduce incentives to innovate. The report takes a sample of medicines
that faced loss of exclusivity in the period 2000 to 2007 in 17 Member
States and estimates that additional savings of around 3 billion
would have been possible on that sample over this period if generic
medicines had entered the market without delay. The report also finds
that companies applied defensive patenting strategies, primarily aimed
at blocking competitors in the development of new medicines.
Read full text: http://infoclickindia.com/fnews.php?id=325
delaying tactics: European Commission
The European Commission has published its preliminary report on the
competition inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector, which finds that
competition in this industry does not work as well as it should.
According to the preliminary findings there is evidence that
originator companies have engaged in practices with the objective of
delaying or blocking market entry of competing medicines. Practices
vis-ŕ-vis generic companies include multiple patent applications for
the same medicine (so-called patent clusters), initiation of disputes
and litigation, conclusion of patent settlements which constrain
market entry of generic companies and interventions before national
authorities when generic companies ask for regulatory approvals. Where
successful, these practices result in significant additional costs for
public health budgets and ultimately taxpayers and patients and
reduce incentives to innovate. The report takes a sample of medicines
that faced loss of exclusivity in the period 2000 to 2007 in 17 Member
States and estimates that additional savings of around 3 billion
would have been possible on that sample over this period if generic
medicines had entered the market without delay. The report also finds
that companies applied defensive patenting strategies, primarily aimed
at blocking competitors in the development of new medicines.
Read full text: http://infoclickindia.com/fnews.php?id=325