USA and Israel resolve bitter three-year pharma patent dispute

After three years of negotiations in a dispute that has kept Israel on the US Trade Representative's priority watch list, and delayed the nation's entry to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 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.

Reporting the story, the local newspaper Globes said it had been advised by 'sources' 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.