China yesterday defended its decision to overturn Pfizer's patent for Viagra in a ruling seen as a setback to protection of intellectual property rights in the country.
The US makers of the top selling erectile disfunction drug were in breach of China's intellectual property rights (IPR) law when they failed to accurately explain "technological" uses of Viagra's key ingredient, an official with the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) said.
"If you widen the description of the [ingredient's] technological uses, you could likely be violating the patent right of others," the SIPO official said on condition of anonymity.
PHOTO: AFP
Although the same office granted Pfizer in 2001 a patent for sildenafil citrate, Viagra's key active ingredient, the official maintained SIPO had the right to revoke the patent.
A Pfizer company statement promised to appeal the judgement.
The official said after approval of sildenafil citrate, more than 10 Chinese companies filed official complaints, forcing the SIPO to review its decision.
"When there are [domestic] requests to invalidate the patent, our review committee should go back to look to it," she said.
"We did grant the patent to Pfizer before, but that does not mean that we are really giving it to you," she said.
She further argued that given the potential size of the Chinese market the office could not afford to be imprudent.
"We are very cautious when we grant a patent, because a patent means a market, and that can mean allowing the monopolization of a market," she said.
The ruling has heightened concerns in the US and is likely to do so in the EU, as they have watched the case closely, concerned about intellectual property rights.
The US-China Business Council, a major Washington-based business association and lobby group, censured the decision and said it was "deeply concerned."
"Given how China has to strengthen IPR enforcement under its WTO obligations, its disheartening to see a lower-level agency make a decision clearly responding to pressure from Chinese companies," said the council's director, Patrick Powers.
Powers added the New York-based Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, would take legal action in China, where foreign companies find their products are routinely copied and counterfeits are widespread.
China's decision likely does not augur well for the pharmaceutical industry, which has viewed the case as a litmus test for the protection of intellectual property rights.
"If China is going to embark on a strategy of patent nullification in order to avoid paying research and development costs, that does not bode well for a strong commitment to strengthening IPR," Powers said.
Pfizer plans to introduce up to 15 new medicines in China in the next five years to treat conditions such as neurological and cardiovascular problems, reports said.
"Intellectual property protection is essential to these plans," the company said.
Pfizer added that it "was extremely disheartened" by the move in China, where it had invested US$500 million by bringing advanced medicines, building facilities and hiring and training local employees.
A Viagra pill costs about one yuan (US$0.10) to make but Pfizer sells them in China for 98 yuan a tablet.
The entry of local producers is likely to see the price drop to 22 yuan a pill, the price of lookalike domestic products which do not contain Viagra's key ingredient.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS