Canada's C-91 Review Begins This Month

On February 4, Canadian federal lawmakers were required to have begun aformal review of 1993's controversial C-91 Patents Act amending legislation. Among other things, C-91 abolished compulsory licensing back to December 1991, providing 20 years' exclusivity for branded drugs before they could be copied by generic manufacturers.

Now however, generics firms say that the bill has hurt not only them but Canada's biopharmaceutical industry. A report issued ahead of the review by the Canadian Drug Manufacturers Association, which represents the generic industry, says that C-91 has "had the effect of casting Canada's biopharmaceutical and generic drug industries adrift in a marketplace dominated by foreign multinational enterprises, many of which have themselves been nurtured to global status behind protective legislative and trade barriers in the own home countries."

The CDMA report proposes a 1%-2% tax on drugs consumed in Canada, which it says could raise C$100-C$200 million ($74.3-$148.7 million) a year to be used to fund "worthwhile biopharmaceutical projects" or "the development of biotechnology manufacturing capability." It also says the federal government should set up a biotechnology advisory body to monitor and combat protectionism, that it should pass orphan drug legislation and that it should give priority to patent applications filed by Canadian companies.