New Nordisk fights for the extent of the Ozempic patent on the STJ; understand

According to Brazilian law, the patent deadline is beginning to be counted from the time of the request, but the company only gains exclusivity about the product after obtaining the document. The pharmacist stressed the Facto News which only enjoyed 35% of the deadline to which he would be entitled by law, that is, for seven years, since the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) took 13 years studying the Patent Request of Semaglutida.

Before 2021, the LPI allowed the patent deadlines to adjust in case of major delays by INPI in the concession. However, the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional automatic adjustment “because the monopoly” of giants such as Novo Nordisk, lawyer Fernando Canutto, expert in intellectual property and partner of Godke Advogados. The decision was also based on the interest of the population, as the end of the monopoly of a drug that fights a chronic disease such as diabetes can facilitate its broad production and distribution.

Novo Nordisk, however, states that its resource does not violate the change promoted by the STF. The company says that “seeks a punctual, non -automatic and proportional adjustment of the term of its patent, precisely so that the company can exercise its constitutional right of protection” to industrial creations, as in article 5 of the Constitution. For Canutto, the company’s argument is valid, but in practice it leads to the already rejected monopoly.

Novo Nordisk tries to differentiate this request by saying that it is a punctual, proportional and non -automatic correction. However, the practical effect is exactly the same as what the STF has already rejected, which cannot have patent for over 20 years. There is a merit (in the company’s argument), it is theoretically possible (using it), but it will hardly work. Fernando Canutto, lawyer specializing in intellectual property

Despite insisting that her request is an exception, the pharmacist also states that she does not claim only the adjustment of the term of her patent, but a “modernization of the Brazilian patent system” “. It suggests the “inclusion of the legal mechanism for compensation for the term of patents in the national legislation called PATENT TERM adjustment or patent adjustment term, free translation of English).

For Canutto, besides being contradictory, this ambition of the new Nordisk does not fit the judiciary. “(The laboratory) is wanting to adjust the structure of the law, change the structure of Brazilian intellectual property to compensate for the delays of INPI, which the STF has already rejected. After decision 5529, there is no solid legal basis for the creation of this mechanism without legislative amendment.” That is, only Congress could suggest the PTA and put it in force in Brazil.