Recently, the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa, the highest court in South Africa, considered “public-interest” factors used in other jursidictions to grant an injunction against alleged patent infringement on grounds of prejudice to public interest.
A Reverse Payment Agreement (RPA) is an interesting point of interface between competition law and intellectual property law. One crucial issue in this regard is whether RPAs can trigger antitrust provisions. This issue had been dealt with previously here.
A somewhat confusing victory for Allergan Inc. was won on June 18th, as the Honourable Justice Hughes upheld their patent on COMBIGAN despite the fact that their invention was ruled to be obvious. The Honourable Justice Hughes ruled in favour of Allergan by prohibiting the Minister of Health from issuing a Notice of Compliance (NOC) […]
On June 16, 2012, the Canada Gazette, published the proposed new regulations formalizing procedures before the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (the Board). These proposed new regulations represent an effort to enhance the efficiency of hearings before the Board through the formal adoption of codified practices and terminology already utilized by the board; the incorporation […]
In a bold move, China has rewritten parts of its intellectual property laws to allow for Chinese companies to make generic copies of life-saving medication still under patent. These domestically produced drugs will be offered for substantially less than what their North American and European pharmaceutical competitors currently charge. The changes will provide local drug […]
A team of Hamilton scientists at the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute (SCC-RI) of McMaster University have made a breakthrough discovery (reported by CTV here) with the potential to significantly impact future cancer treatment, and provide new hope for people living with cancer including tens of thousands of Canadians. Published in last Thursday’s edition […]
Normally, doing something that breaks the law earns you a punishment, including a fine, community service, or even imprisonment. However, when Apotex Inc., a large generic pharmaceutical company, began producing and selling a drug that Servier Laboratories Limited, another large pharmaceutical company, had patented, Apotex was awarded $17.5 million.
This Wednesday, April 18, Pfizer will defend the patent protecting the little blue pill that has changed the lives of men and women around the world. The pill is of course Viagra and the assailant is Teva, a generic pharmaceutical company. Teva applied for a Notice of Compliance in order to market a generic version […]
The Canadian government and European Union (EU) are currently negotiating a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). A key issue has been ensuring that Canadian intellectual property rights for pharmaceutical products are brought in line with EU standards. It appears that the EU believes Canada’s legal regime regulating the approval of drugs does not provide […]
In a move with far reaching implications for the debates around pharmaceutical patents, innovation and access to medicines, the Indian patent office issued its first ever compulsory licence in the post TRIPS era. While health activists, generic manufacturers and several academics lauded the decision, the multinational pharmaceutical industry was up in arms.