Two member firms of Rajah & Tann Asia, Rajah & Tann Singapore and Assegaf Hamzah & Partners (“AHP”), are members of the Lifesciences Asia-Pacific Network (“LAN”) which was established for the Lifesciences sector to support and guide clients on all their legal and regulatory needs in the Asia-Pacific region. LAN’s members include other leading and largest law firms in the region, such as Atsumi & Sakai in Japan, Chen & Lin in Taiwan, CMS in China and Hong Kong, Corrs Chambers Westgarth in Australia, Khaitan & Co in India, Tilleke & Gibbins in Thailand and Vietnam, and Yulchon LLC in Korea.
Rajah & Tann Singapore and AHP have recently contributed to the Singapore and Indonesia chapters of Comparative Study:Patent Linkage Systems in APAC, a comparative article produced by LAN on the Patent Linkage System across the Asia-Pacific region. Drug patent disputes prior to the planned launch of generic drugs have long been a challenge. On one hand, innovator drug companies face various challenges in the manufacture of drugs, such as the size of investments to be injected, long lead times, high risks of failure, and the difficulty of achieving innovations in the drug research and development process. On the other hand, generic drug companies have to contend with issues relating to patent protection policies that contribute to prolonged market domination of innovator drugs. As a result, tension arises between the affected innovator drug companies and generic drug companies. A patent linkage system provides for an early resolution of drug patent disputes and mitigation of potential infringement risks prior to the marketing of generic drugs. It aims to balance the interests of innovator drug companies and generic drug companies.
The article provides an overview of the patent linkage systems in these Asia-Pacific countries: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Lau Kok Keng, Head of the Intellectual Property, Sports and Gaming of Rajah & Tann Singapore, and Eko Basyuni, Partner with AHP, authored the Singapore and Indonesia chapters, respectively, of the article.
To read the full article with its annexes, please click here.
