After three years of negotiations, Israel and the US have reached agreement on pharmaceutical intellectual property.
The past decade has been characterized by bitter disputes between Israeli generic drug companies, with the support of the government, worried about drug prices, and US innovative pharmaceutical companies, supported by the US government. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, under minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, was caught in the middle. It wants to resolve the issue with the US without harming Israeli companies.
The dispute has kept Israel on the US Trade Representative's (USTR) priority watch list, and delayed Israel's entry to the OECD.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that, in the agreement, Israel has conceded two issues. On the issue of information exclusivity (the files that pharmaceutical companies submit to the Ministry of Health to obtain approval for their brand drugs, files that generic drug companies need to make their own versions of the brand drugs) will be confidential for to 6.5 years instead of 5.5 years. There is a reservation; especially rapid approval of a brand drug will shorten the exclusivity period, but not to less than five years, net.
Israel will also amend its Patent Law. Currently, patents on pharmaceuticals in Israel expire at the same time as the expiry in one of 21 countries. This list will be shortened to the world's largest markets.
In exchange, the US will support Israel's accession to the OECD, and the USTR will remove Israel from its Priority Watch List.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 18, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010