Patent evergreening is a strategy mostly adopted by pharma companies. In this strategy, the pharma companies that have patent rights that are about to expire, try to renew their patent in order to keep that particular patent alive and make more money out of it. There are many strategies that they can adopt such as filing new patent applications with minor changes, substituting chemicals with new chemicals that would have similar effect and so on. Pharma companies adopt these strategies on highly valuable patents that provide huge profit margins. These companies intend to prolong the life of a patent further than 20 years in order to gain profits for a very long time. The ultimate aim is to prevent the generic drug making companies from entering the market as long as permissible so that the drug is highly priced even after the expiration of the patent protection period.
Should Novartis be awarded a Patent on Glivec?
Novartis AG has claimed that it has the right to get a patent on a blood cancer drug in India. Novartis has spent a lot of money and effort to produce the blood cancer drug Glivec without any intentions of evergreening its patent rights. Glivec is about 30% more efficient compared to other blood cancer drugs.
Patent Trolls Back in News Again!
Patent troll is a derogatory term given to those companies that buy patents just to mint money out of expensive litigation cases without having any intention of marketing the inventions. The decision given by the federal circuit can be seen as a blessing in disguise for those defendants facing similar frivolous lawsuits.
Pharma Patent Controversies
As we are all aware patents are the legal rights granted by the Government to prevent others from using the protected invention. However, patents related to medicines can be extremely controversial. According to pharmaceutical giants a huge sum of investments are required in order to develop new medicines. Thus, these big pharma companies have the right to sell these patents drugs at an exorbitant price. But the biggest problem associated with this is the issue of live and death. It is very tragic when lives of poor people who cannot afford to pay for such highly priced medicine depends on this. Poor people can only afford such medicines if they are available in a cheaper, generic form.
Venus Remedies gets a Patent on Vancoplus
Venus Remedies has been granted a patent on ‘Vancoplus’ that is useful for treating bacterial infections caused by Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). MRSA is also known as superbug. The chemical vector mediated compatibility technique has been used to achieve a stable formulation of Vancomycin and ceftriaxone.
The patent is valid up to 20 years from the date of grant i.e. 2027. The company is geared up to launch the product in the United States.