European Generics Industry Calls For “Urgent Patent Reform”

“Competition and real innovation” will be increasingly difficult if the patent system in Europe is not reformed, the European Generic Medicines Association (EGA) said today at its “Legal Affairs Forum,” which took place on 11 March.

The European Patent Office must “look to improve the quality of patent examinations and applications and accelerate examination and opposition proceedings,” the EGA said in a press release.

The EGA in particular supports a so-called “Bolar provision” that would keep market access issues such as marketing authorisation separate from IP issues.

The statement comes in the context of the European Union’s pharmaceutical sector inquiry, which found anticompetitive practices rampant in the brand-name pharmaceutical industry, including the active use of intellectual property to delay generic medicines entry into market (IPW, Public Health, 8 July 2009).

Follow-up to the inquiry’s findings is ongoing, including antitrust actions such as monitoring patent settlements between pharmaceutical companies, as well as formal proceedings against the pharmaceutical company Lundbeck.