Argentina Passes Corrective Patent Bill

Argentina looks to be near to finally passing its controversial patent legislation. Towards the end of July the Senate passed a corrective patent bill, which now moves to the Deputies for approval before finally becoming law.

The corrective bill establishes a transition period of five years from the date the law appears in the official bulletin. The law, passed earlier by both houses but then vetoed by President Menem (Marketletters passim), had a transition period of eight years.

National pharmaceutical companies which wish to produce drugs developed by other firms will have to pay a royalty from around the middle of the year 2000, and when agreement cannot be reached between the two parties over how much the royalty should be, a reasonable sum will be fixed based on each individual case and in line with the average rate for royalties in the industry.