Concern In Argentina Over Trade Secrets

The Argentine government is debating proposals for the introduction of a Trade Secrets Act, which the national pharmaceutical industry association, Cilfa, fears could be detrimental to its interests.

Alberto Schilling, representing Cilfa and ALIFAR, the Latin American pharmaceutical industry organization (Marketletters passim), at an international conference on intellectual property in India (see pages 17, 24 and 25), told the Marketletter that Cilfa is concerned about a number of issues relating to the bill.

The organization fears that the bill may be an indirect way of implementing a pipeline clause and retroactivity in relation to intellectual property. Argentina introduced a new patent law in 1995 which does not contain these features (Marketletters passim).