Intellectual property protection

Patents are important incentives for the continued innovation that drives society’s progress.

In the case of pharmaceuticals, the majority of new medicines come from research-based industry – no one else has the necessary combination of skills, experience and resources to deliver real advances in this area. The path to a new medicine is a long, complex, expensive and risky process. It can take more than 10 years and typically over  $1 billion is invested before the first dollar of sales is realised. We usually file for patent protection relatively early in the research and development process, which means that at the time a new medicine is launched, we have between eight and 15 years of protection left before other companies can begin selling generic versions (at lower prices, because they do not need to bear the high costs of research that we do). We therefore rigorously defend our legitimate intellectual property rights during the period of protection, because this gives us time to generate the revenue we need to continue our investment in providing medicines for important areas of healthcare.

Patents do not create a monopoly for treating a disease – other companies are able to develop a different medicine to treat the same condition. Also, because patents require the disclosure and publication of information about the patented medicine, they can stimulate competition to innovate improved alternatives that expand the range of treatment options – which is important, because patients respond differently to different therapies. And after all patents applicable to a product expire, any company (both innovative and generic) can legitimately market the same product.

To find out more about our IP activity, visit our online Annual Report.

COMPULSORY LICENSING

Compulsory licensing (the overruling of patent rights to allow patented medicines to be manufactured by other parties) is increasingly being included in the access to medicines debate. AstraZeneca recognises the right of developing countries to use the flexibilities in the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement (including the Doha amendment) in certain limited circumstances, such as a public health emergency.  We believe that this should apply only when all other ways of meeting the emergency needs have been considered and where healthcare frameworks and safeguards to prevent diversion are in place to ensure that the medicines reach those who need them.

The content of this page was externally assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2009.