By - 12th March 2004
Patent rights for medicines will be standardised at ten years, following the adoption of major new pharmaceuticals laws on Thursday.
The so-called ‘pharma review’ package was adopted by national governments at a competition council in Brussels, having only been scheduled to come up at the last minute.
Currently patent protection for new medicines varies between six and ten years in the member states, but is as low as three in some accession countries.
The basic data protection period will now be fixed at eight years – but with a further two tacked on the end during which other companies can base research on original products but not market them.
The protection period delays the prospects for other companies to create copycat 'generic' medicines based on the original product, and often cheaper.
But industry argues that it needs data protection in order to be competitive.
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