The Pharmaceutical Industry, Biotechnology and the Intellectual Property
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The pharmaceutical industry and the biotechnology are segments that by nature promote the incentive to innovation and research. It is necessary to hire highly qualified labor and provide them with the conditions to develop drugs, active ingredients, and immunizing agents to relief health problems and improve the well-being of citizens. Due to the high investments involved in research to get a product safely to market, the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology companies need the support of intellectual property experts to ensure that they can comply with legal and regulatory issues and commercial exploitation of their creations worldwide. Patents are crucial to the pharmaceutical industry, for they will ensure that all the efforts employed by the team of scientists at all stages, from the development of the molecules to the clinical trials and marketing efforts, will result in gains for the company, which will be able to exploit the invention exclusively under legal protection for a certain period of time. Usually, patent applications are made in the early stages of this process, when there is a lot of work ahead before the commercial potential of the end product is known, and therefore, high risks for the company that is betting on the development. Research, innovation and patents One of the main reasons for the need for legal advice on intellectual property is that beyond the protection of a creation, the activity of the pharmaceutical industry gets close in many times to issues of basic rights and public health, approaching a series of other legal, sensitive and polemic points that will have influence on the commercial exploitation. Recently, the patent-breaking requests for Covid-19 vaccines have been in the news, meaning the compulsory licensing of immunizing technology, which would decrease the shortage and speed up the vaccination process of the population, to the detriment of the patent holders’ monopoly. Patent breaking are foreseen in the Brazilian Industrial Property Law (9.279/1996), in international law, and in article 71 of the Brazilian Patent Law in cases of emergency, such as the need for immunization of the population in a world pandemic. On the other hand, since the pharmaceutical industry is a major investor in technology and innovation, patent breaking can be discouraging to this fostering, which is also undesirable. Many industrial property experts have weighed that the best way out, instead of patent breaking, even with legal backing in emergency situations, should be to negotiate prices with the patent holders. As we can see, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry needs a good intellectual property consultancy to help on all these points, because the scenario is complex. It is necessary to have legal security to fully exercise the activities in the sector, with a breath for the especially important investments in technology, research and innovation, and serenity to reap the fruits of the enterprises.