As Novartis is challenging in Supreme Court of India, Section 3(d) of Indian Patent Law that inhibits evergreening of patenting; the Health Systems Research Institute of Thailand has released the initial findings of their study on evergreening patents in Thailand.
The study revealed that out of the 2,034 patents granted during the past decade, 1,960 were categorised as “evergreening patents”, meaning that the patent holders _ typically large, multinational drug companies _ applied for new patents by making only minor changes to formulas. The study also found that most of the patent holders in Thailand were German, Swiss, Swedish, French, British or American companies.
In an article in Bangkok Post, one of the researcher of the study stated that “Evergreening patents is a strategy widely used by multinational pharmaceutical companies to retain profits from popular drugs for as long as possible. But this affects public access to affordable medicines as well as domestic research and development.”
Click here to read the full article:
Medicine patent laws drive up drug prices, says institute
Bangkok Post, 6 September 2011
Don't trade our lives away 