MNCs View Israeli Generic Plans

The draft legislation approved in a first reading by Israel'sparliament, allowing local drugmakers to develop and register generics before the branded drugs lose patent protection (Marketletter November 17), would give Israel a right enjoyed by no other nation in the world, ie to develop generics while the branded products had patent protection and submit them for approval outside its borders, says an adviser to drug multinationals in Israel, quoted by Dow Jones.

Aaron Schwartz, vice president of Teva Pharmaceuticals, Israel's largest drugmaker, commented that the multinationals only have sales offices in Israel and have never invested there, adding that for them to threaten to withdraw investments they never made is "effrontery." Teva has advocated the legislation and has threatened to move its facilities to the USA, where it could conduct R&D on generics and register them before patent expiration.

MNCs "Do Conduct R&D In Israel" US law allows the development and registration of generics before patents expire, but submission only to US regulators while patent protection exists. The local advisor was also quoted as saying that Pfizer, Merck & Co and others, do R&D in Israel, and that Johnson and Johnson recently bought Israeli biotechnology company Biosense for $450 million.