Taiwan took a major step forward a year ago in protecting intellectual property rights when legislators passed a law to establish a “Patent Linkage” system for safeguarding patents on pharmaceuticals. Distressingly, the government now appears to be preparing to take a big step backward by limiting the coverage of that law. Rules being proposed by…
In recent years the utilization of risk-sharing mechanisms – also known as managed entry agreements (MEAs) – has become increasingly common in healthcare systems around the world. Britain, Italy, Canada, and Korea are prominent examples. These arrangements have been welcomed by both the pharmaceutical industry and national healthcare administrations as a means of accommodating innovative…
Transforming Taiwan into a regional biomedical hub will require some creativity. Taiwan’s biomedicine industry has many of the ingredients for success. The island has strong scientific talent, rich clinical-trial experience, abundant capital, a treasure trove of medical data (from the National Health Insurance system), information-technology expertise, and strong intellectual property rights protection bolstered by the…
During its 52 years of doing business in Taiwan, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has spearheaded the introduction into this market of cutting-edge medicines for the treatment of serious ailments such as hepatitis B and C, rheumatoid arthritis and other immune related diseases, and leukemia and other types of cancer. The parent company is the result of…
Finding new treatments for difficult to cure diseases Devoted to improving local education and medical care Although Chicago-based AbbVie was founded only five years ago, its performance in delivering new drugs for hard-to-treat diseases and its dedication to improving local medical services and education have quickly received global attention. “Our goal is to provide groundbreaking…
During her visit to Taipei at the end of January, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Diane Farrell lauded the decision by the Taiwan government to establish a Patent Linkage system to help ensure that generic drugs cannot reach the market while the original product is still covered by a valid Taiwan patent. Farrell described…
The Taiwan government deserves congratulations for its recent enactment of landmark legislation establishing a Patent Linkage system for pharmaceutical products, a mechanism designed to prevent infringing drugs from being licensed while an original medication still holds a valid patent in this market. Credit goes both to the executive branch agencies that ushered through this initiative…
Should the current target-expenditure system be extended? When the Taiwan government five years ago was working on how to revamp the National Health Insurance (NHI) program to help ensure its long-term sustainability, one of the new measures it adopted was a suggestion from the pharmaceutical industry that had been broached in AmCham Taipei’s 2010 Taiwan…
Strengthening protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) is crucial to attracting investment in Taiwan’s pharmaceutical sector. In order to better protect IPR for innovative products, the Pharmaceutical Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei recommends completing the legislative process for Patent Linkage and Data Exclusivity. Patent Linkage prevents regulatory authorization of generic medicines…
“Robust intellectual property (IP) protection is vital for biopharmaceutical innovation,” stresses a recently released report from Geneva Network, a UK-based public policy research and advocacy organization specializing in international intellectual property, health, and trade issues. The report – written by Geneva Network researcher Jack Ellis, a former Asia-Pacific editor of Intellectual Asset Management magazine –…
