Protect Pharmaceutical Patents Go back »

2022-06-21 | All chapters

Protect Pharmaceutical Patents

The development of originator drugs on average takes up to 12 years and costs more than EUR 2 billion. However, new drugs are easily copied, and the lengthy patent registration and drug regulatory processes take up the originator drug’s patent term and reduce its lifespan in the market. In addition, sometimes drug administration authorities approve the registration of a generic drug even though the originators’ patents are still in force.

For the past two decades, the European Chamber’s Pharmaceutical Working Group has been advocating for patent term extension and patent linkage to better protect intellectual property rights for our member companies. As a result, positive steps have been made by Chinese authorities – the new Patent Law, enacted on 1st June 2021, as well as three regulations on ‘early resolution mechanism on pharmaceutical patent disputes’, issued in July 2021, introduced patent term extension and patent linkage mechanisms to China.

Read more about patent term extension and patent linkage.

Learn more about the Pharmaceutical Working Group.