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September, 2006 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India |
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Domestic pharma majors get relief due to MailBox Bilings.
The last minute change in the Patent Amendment Bill came to be a relief to domestic pharma majors. Under this alteration, beneficiaries of the MailBox patent filing would not have the right to prosecute, with retrospective effect, producers of existing generic drugs on the of patent infringement.
The Department of Industrial Policy Promotion (DIPP) had sent the revised bill to the cabinet last week for consideration. The will was introduced in the parliament two weeks ago. However, the government might opt for the ordinance route to meet the Trips (Trade Related Intellectual Property Right) deadline for introducing product patents in pharma and agrochem sector.
The Mail Box is a facility introduced through the first amendment to the patent act in 1999. It allows filing for product patents for drugs, agro- chemicals and food products discovered during the period January 1995- December 2004. The patent office will be examining these applicatios from January and any patents based on Mail Box filings, if granted, will be effective for 20 years from the date of application.
Domestic drug companies, which already sell generic versions of the clutch of drugs for whom Mail Box applications are pending, feared that they would become liable for prosecution by successful applicants.
Date: 24-Dec-2004
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