Chilean pharma patents debate reignited, as Asilfa rejects infringement allegations

Ricardo Garcia, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Chile (Chile Amcham) has noted that one of the reasons Chile stayed in the "red list" of intellectual property was for allegedly copying certain US pharmaceutical companies' drugs, thus sparking off discussion on intellectual property protection in the country.

The debate has just started, according to a blog posted at IP Tango. Yesterday, local pharmaceutical trade body Asilfa's vice president, Maria Angelica Sanchez, rejected the accusations, saying that no patents have been infringed because, in cases where they have been challenged, they are not subject to patenting. She added: 'our laboratories comply faithfully with the issue of industrial property and pharmaceutical patents.' Miss Sanchez also explained that those trials and questioning refer to cases of drugs produced or created before 1991. It is worth bearing in mind that medicines were only incorporated in the Chilean Industrial Property Law in 1991.

Trying to make her point, Miss Sanchez stated: "These are drugs that, although they were created before 1991, the laboratory of origin makes them a little modification and applies for a patent, which usually never sees the light. They use that application to say the product is patented.' She adds 'while the application is made, which may take three to five years, the [applicant] laboratory sent a letter to the [infringer] lab explaining that they cannot manufacture the product because it is under patent application, but that means nothing because it is not patented'.