Concerned about patent rights, two large pharmaceutical industry trade groups have asked U.S. trade officials to place the European Union on a so-called watch list of countries that, arguably, do not sufficiently protect intellectual property rights.
The move comes in response to a pair of European Commission reviews. One concerns incentives for patents and their impact on innovation and access to medicines. The other might rework “supplementary protection certificates,” which are essentially patent extensions, by offering waivers to third parties to make and export patent-protected drugs.
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