Bristol-Myers Squibb Pirating Drugs?

US company Bristol-Myers Squibb has found itself to be in a curious position in Argentina since its acquisition in March of the Argentinian drug company Argentia (Marketletters passim). It would appear that the firm's Argentinian subsidiary is pirating pharmaceuticals, which include copies of B-MS drugs, according to a report in Cinco Dias' Spanish edition of the Wall Street Journal.

B-MS is reported to have said that it is an unusual position that is temporary and that like other Argentinian companies, before its acquisition Argentia took advantage of the country's weak patent legislation and and produced copies of products developed by multinational drug companies.

Argentina has modernized its intellectual property laws and the national drug companies have a five-year transition period regarding manufacture of drug copies (Marketletters passim).