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Time To Repair The Drug Patent Process in Canada: Longer Drug Patents Will Not Attract New Research
Time To Repair The Drug Patent Process in Canada: Longer Drug Patents Will Not Attract New Research
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competitors can enter the market. T his is because pharmaceutical companies of ten f ile multiple, overlapping patents on the same drug and use these of ten-bogus patent claims to block regulatory approval of generics. T his generates a lot of income f or patent lawyers and consultants but provides no value to society as a whole. If the International Trade Minister wants to extend drug patents, the Health Minister should use the opportunity to improve our regulatory system too: Provide a clear and unambiguous period of market exclusivity af ter a drug has met high standards of pre-market regulatory approval; Require that all data considered by that regulatory process be made available to the public; And allow all generic competition as soon as the period of market exclusivity has expired. Such a system would be a windf all f or truly innovative pharmaceutical companies, would dramatically improve regulatory transparency, and would likely mitigate the aggregate cost-impact of conceding pharmaceutical patents as part of our trade negotiations. But simply granting longer drug patents under the guise of attracting research investment is patent nonsense. Steve Morgan is an expert advisor with EvidenceNetwork.ca and Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research at the University of British Columbia.