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EGA Press Release

Monday, 08 March 2004

Dangers to Affordable Healthcare in IP Enforcement Directive: “Safeguard Amendment” Needed in Fourtou Report.

European manufacturers and suppliers of affordable generic medicines fear that new EU intellectual property legislation will give major pharmaceutical companies a blank cheque to unfairly delay competitive medicines from entering the market immediately after patent expiry.

The new threat to affordable healthcare comes from the proposed EU Directive on Intellectual Property Enforcement, which receives its First Reading by MEPs tomorrow in Strasbourg.

This law was originally supposed to target counterfeiting and piracy - and originally had the support of European manufacturers of generic medicines. However the proposal was radically changed to expand the sanctions applicable to counterfeiters to any form of intellectual property dispute.

Of extreme concern for the healthcare sector is the agreement to include patents within the scope of the proposed Directive and the lack of safeguards against unfounded or even frivolous patent litigation in the proposed Fourtou Report. This is in direct contradiction to the report as adopted by MEPs in the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market.

The EGA is now urging MEPs to vote in favor of an amendment sponsored by the EDD group designed to introduce safeguards against abusive and unfounded patent litigation by ensuring adequate financial compensation for the injured party when such lawsuits are proven to be baseless. The amendment would act as major deterrent against unjustified litigation by dominant companies.

According to Greg Perry, Director of the EGA:

“Our Industry has been a major supporter of tough measures to deal with counterfeiting and piracy but the IP Enforcement Directive in its current form now endangers legitimate competition. Without the safeguards proposed in the EDD amendment, the provisions in the new Directive will be used to block legitimate competitive products and retard patient access to affordable medicines.”

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