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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Pfizer continues patent fight [against theft] in China |
| 2004-09-29 |
| Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, on Tuesday appealed against China's revocation of its Viagra patent in a case that may test the nation's commitment to stronger protection for intellectual property rights. Pfizer appealed the July decision by China's patent office in the Beijing First Intermediate People's Court, Wang Xunbiao, a Beijing spokesman for the New York-based company, said by telephone. The China patent on Viagra, the world's best-selling impotence treatment, was due to expire in 2014. Pfizer and other drug companies are seeking evidence that their patents will be protected as they expand in China's $10 billion drug market. GlaxoSmithKline last month abandoned its battle to protect a patent for its top diabetes drug in China. Toyota Motor lost a lawsuit in Beijing last November against a Chinese automaker accused of copying designs. There's nothing like being forced to play in a rigged game. The international business community needs to realize that China will copy, imitate or just plain steal whatever it does not want to pay for. Only after the world economy has been bled of TRILLIONS of dollars will it begin to wake up to the closed shop that is China. The politburo will buy off any and all politicians necessary to ensure that global wealth pours into China. Just don't count on seeing any of it ever again. "The foreign drug industry is shocked by China's decision to revoke Pfizer's Viagra patent," said Christopher Torrens, editorial director of Access Asia, a research consultancy in Shanghai. "It worries foreign investors, whose interests may be ripped off in China." The Viagra patent was revoked after a group of Chinese generic drugmakers convinced the State Intellectual Property Office that Pfizer did not provide full documentation showing that a key ingredient, sildenafil citrate, was the primary factor in preventing erectile dysfunction. You'd have better luck proving the existence of God to these people before they'd accept "proof" of your product's method of delivery. Does anyone remember Japan's hyper-restrictive auto import legislation that essentially used to require 100% crash testing of all arriving automobiles? Full documentation required for Chinese patents may involve proprietary secrets that companies typically are not willing to publicize. Whoa, now there's a shocker! In order to get a patent, first you have to completely detail the synthesis or manufacturing process. By that time, you might as well just give the stuff away out on the street. |
| Posted by:Zenster |
| #3 Well, revealing the secret is pretty much SOP for any patent. That's the whole purpose: to have a limited time monopoly in exchange for eventual public-domain knowledge. Of course, that is talking about a reasonably honest government. That doesn't apply in the PRC. |
| Posted by: jackal 2004-09-29 4:06:00 PM |
| #2 Interesting. Unlike Hollywood or the auto industry, Pfizer like most Big Pharma companies derives the vast majority of its operating profits from only one or two blockbuster drugs. If they can't protect their blockbuster patents, they go out of business. Doubt we/Pharma will back down on this one. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-09-29 10:38:51 AM |
| #1 Just give it to them, Pfizer. Sure, you stand to lose money. But think of all the tigers and rhinos you'll save when people don't have to make their 'nads into soup anymore. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-09-29 10:32:47 AM |