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Health Group Challenges Gilead Patents In The US On Grounds Of Lack Of Novelty

25/10/2017 by Intellectual Property Watch 11 Comments

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A health advocacy group today announced that it has challenged a set of United States patents for a hepatitis C medicine. The group says drug maker Gilead Sciences has obtained unmerited patents for sofosbuvir, blocking millions of US patients from affordable treatment.

The Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge (I-MAK) filed the first-ever set of US patent challenges against sofosbuvir with the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The group challenged six patents, arguing that sofosbuvir’s patents do not meet patentability criteria such as novelty and non-obviousness, according to a press release.

The group also issued a new white paper “America’s Overspend: How the Pharmaceutical Patent Problem is Fueling High Drug Prices.”

The white paper finds that unmerited patents and other strategies allegedly used by the pharmaceutical industry to delay competition on three major cancer and hepatitis C treatments will cause more than $55 billion in excess costs to payers and taxpayers. The paper examines three of America’s most expensive and widely prescribed drugs for cancer and hepatitis C: Revlimid, Sovaldi and Gleevec.

According to the press release, the market for medicines is not working, and removing unmerited patents will allow more affordable generic drugs to be introduced much sooner. The release states that pharmaceutical drugs patents fail too often to meet the standards of US law.

“Pharmaceutical corporations are over-patenting drugs even when there is no new science that justifies their exclusivity and are stacking up as many unmerited patents as possible to prolong their monopolies and block cheaper generics from entering the market,” it says.

 

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Creative Commons License"Health Group Challenges Gilead Patents In The US On Grounds Of Lack Of Novelty" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Filed Under: IP-Watch Briefs, IP Policies, Language, Themes, Venues, Access to Knowledge/ Education, English, Health & IP, Health Policy Watch, Human Rights, IP Law, Innovation/ R&D, Lobbying, North America, Patents/Designs/Trade Secrets, Regional Policy

Trackbacks

  1. Gilead's Patents on Hepatitis C Drug Challenged by Consumer Group - The Google News says:
    25/10/2017 at 4:02 pm

    […] Health Group Challenges Gilead Patents In The US On Grounds Of Lack Of Novelty  Intellectual Property Watch […]

    Reply
  2. Links 25/10/2017: New Linux Report, Qt 5.10 Beta 2, CAINE 9.0 | Techrights says:
    26/10/2017 at 6:15 am

    […] Health Group Challenges Gilead Patents In The US On Grounds Of Lack Of Novelty […]

    Reply
  3. Wrapping Up 2017 – some noteworthy medicines law and policy events. | Medicines Law & Policy says:
    30/12/2017 at 11:13 pm

    […] in October, I-Mak challenged Gilead sofosbuvir patents in the […]

    Reply
  4. Collective Efforts By Civil Society Groups Bar The Way To Hepatitis C Patents - Intellectual Property Watch says:
    10/05/2018 at 2:52 pm

    […] In November, I-MAK filed the first-ever set of US patent challenges against sofosbuvir with the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board. I-MAK challenged six patents, arguing that the sofosbuvir’s patents do not meet patentability criteria such as novelty and non-obviousness (IPW, IP & Health, 25 October 2017). […]

    Reply
  5. Collective efforts by civil society groups bar the way to Hepatitis C patents - Make Medicines Affordable says:
    12/05/2018 at 3:55 pm

    […] In November, I-MAK filed the first-ever set of US patent challenges against sofosbuvir with the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board. I-MAK challenged six patents, arguing that the sofosbuvir’s patents do not meet patentability criteria such as novelty and non-obviousness (IPW, IP & Health, 25 October 2017). […]

    Reply
  6. Коллективные усилия гражданского общества помогают предотвратить Рsays:
    09/08/2018 at 11:19 pm

    […] В ноябре I-MAK оспорила ряд патентов на софосбувир в США в Комиссии по рассмотрениям патентных споров. I-MAK оспорила шесть патентов, аргументируя это тем, что патенты на софосбувир не соответствуют критериям новизны и неочевидности (IPW, IP & Health, 25 октября 2017 г.). […]

    Reply
  7. Esforços coletivos de grupos da sociedade civil no caminho das patentes para o tratamento da Hepatite C - Intellectual Property Watch says:
    10/08/2018 at 4:15 pm

    […] do sofosbuvir não atendem a critérios de patenteabilidade como novidade e não obviedade (IPW, IP & Health, 25 October […]

    Reply
  8. Коллективные усилия гражданского общества помогают предотвратить Рsays:
    14/08/2018 at 12:12 am

    […] В ноябре I-MAK оспорила ряд патентов на софосбувир в США в Комиссии по рассмотрениям патентных споров. I-MAK оспорила шесть патентов, аргументируя это тем, что патенты на софосбувир не соответствуют критериям новизны и неочевидности (IPW, IP & Health, 25 октября 2017 г.). […]

    Reply
  9. L’action collective de groupes de la société civile fait barrage aux brevets pour les médicaments contre l’hépatite C - Make Medicines Affordable says:
    16/08/2018 at 12:30 pm

    […] affirmant qu’ils ne remplissaient pas les critères de nouveauté et d’activité non évidente (IPW, IP & Health, 25 octobre 2017, en […]

    Reply
  10. Esfuerzos mancomunados de grupos de la sociedad civil impiden la entrada de las patentes de medicamentos contra la hepatitis C - Make Medicines Affordable says:
    16/08/2018 at 12:31 pm

    […] En noviembre, I-MAK presentó el primer conjunto de impugnaciones de patentes estadounidenses respecto del sofosbuvir ante la Junta de Juicios y Apelaciones sobre Patentes de Estados Unidos. I-MAK impugnó seis patentes, alegando que las patentes del sofosbuvir no cumplen los requisitos de patentabilidad, como la novedad y la no evidencia (IPW, propiedad intelectual y salud, 25 de octubre de 2017). […]

    Reply
  11. Коллективные усилия гражданского общества помогают предотвратить Рsays:
    16/08/2018 at 12:34 pm

    […] В ноябре I-MAK оспорила ряд патентов на софосбувир в США в Комиссии по рассмотрениям патентных споров. I-MAK оспорила шесть патентов, аргументируя это тем, что патенты на софосбувир не соответствуют критериям новизны и неочевидности (IPW, IP & Health, 25 октября 2017 г.). […]

    Reply

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