The US is demanding that Israel change its rules for protecting intellectual property to provide US pharmaceutical companies with five-year marketing exclusivity in Israel for ethical drugs, both for the Israeli and market and for third countries. US Assistant Secretary of Commerce William Lash, in Israel for talks on the issue, told “Globes” of the US demands.
The US demands exclusivity that will deny Israeli generic companies, particularly Teva Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA), use of information submitted by international ethical drug companies in order to obtain approval for their drugs from the Ministry of Health.
Lash said that violations of intellectual property rights in the pharmaceutical, software, DVD, and music industries had cost Israel $1 billion in trade with the US over the past three years. He expressed hope that the matter could be arranged with Israel before the end of this summer, when the US reviews the status with respect to intellectual property of countries around the world. Israel recently made promises to the US to avoid having its status on intellectual property rights observance downgraded.
Israeli pharmaceutical manufacturers are threatening that if they are prevented from using information submitted for drug approvals, they will have to move some of their manufacturing to third party countries that are less strict about intellectual property.
Pharma Israel - The Association of the Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, which represents international drug companies in Israel, said today that it was demanding better protection of intellectual property in Israel, which would attract $200 million more in investments to Israel. Pharma Israel said that at least eleven products were not registered in Israel because of a lack of protection.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on July 1, 2004