Pfizer Lashes Out at China Patent Decision
Friday July 16, 10:52 am ET
By Jake Lloyd-Smith, Associated Press Writer
U.S. Drug Giant Lashes Out at China Patent Decision for Viagra, Says May Curb Investment
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug company, lashed out Friday at Chinese regulators' recent decision to overturn its local patent for Viagra, warning that it might cut future investment in the world's most populous country.
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"We are extremely disappointed. The basis of fair trade is respecting intellectual property," Chairman and Chief Executive Henry McKinnell said in Singapore, where he was opening a new manufacturing plant.
Pfizer is appealing a decision by China's State Intellectual Property Office to overturn the anti-impotence drug's local patent because it didn't meet Chinese patent law specifications.
Asked if the dispute might dissuade Pfizer, whose operations span the globe, from further investments in China, McKinnell replied: "Absolutely."
The patent will remain in force while the case is considered over the coming three months.
The patent office's decision came after a group of Chinese drug companies filed a petition in 2001 seeking to nullify Pfizer's patent for sildenafil citrate -- Viagra's active ingredient -- saying it failed to fulfill the "novelty requirement" of Chinese law.
McKinnell said counterfeiting is rampant in China -- a common complaint from Western multinational companies that have flocked in recent years to the region's fastest-growing economy.
He also said his company had done a poor job over the past decade at making its case in the often-heated debate about the rising cost of many modern medicines.
"An investment in modern medicine actually saves money elsewhere," with less need for surgery, or doctors' time, he said. "Healthier nations are wealthier nations."
Drug discovery and testing typically take many years and large sums of money before new products are ready for the public.
McKinnell said many governments take an unduly narrow view of the costs and benefits involved in patient treatment and care. He didn't name specific countries.
"You don't have to look at health care as a cost; you (can) recognize that like education, it is an investment in the future," he said. |
