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China's Viagra Heist
14 July 2004
When Pfizer invented Viagra
it thought it had a right to be rewarded for inventing a product
that would improve the lives of millions. That's more or less the
way it's worked out. But last week China decided to ignore market
principles, its own World Trade Organization commitments and the
long-term interests of its people by overturning the drug's patent.
Pfizer is appealing the action by China's State Intellectual Property Office, whose decision on the erectile-dysfunction drug was made retroactively on the narrow grounds that the U.S. company had not supplied some of the information required to uphold the patent. But the appeal process is expensive. Moreover, the decision in favor of Chinese pharmaceutical companies that had brought the petition marks a troubling pattern. Although it has promised to respect intellectual property rights, China is acceding to the demands of its own companies for patent-nullification.
Foreign businessmen were relieved earlier this year when Vice Premier Wu Yi was put in charge of property-rights protection and promised in Washington to crack down on piracy. But now everyone is wondering who's in charge. "Improving IPR enforcement is one of China's WTO commitments, and it's truly disappointing to see line bureaucrats ignoring a company's well-established patent," Patrick Powers, head of the U.S.-China Business Council, told us.
It is of course pure coincidence that China's Viagra decision came just before pharmaceutical companies are scheduled to duly play their assigned role of villains at a giant AIDS conference in Bangkok this week. In the case of Viagra, there is little room for pulling at heart strings. The high profile nature of the drug, however, will make it hard for the U.S. and EU not to retaliate. We've defended Beijing against U.S. protectionists, but China's Viagra action amounts to outright theft. source :-http://www.truthabouttrade.org/ | 
