By: INPI
Last modified: July 4, 2017, 4:25 p.m.
At the opening of the Forum for the Exchange of Best Practices in Management and Examination of Patent Offices in the Biopharmaceutical Area, held on July 4 in Rio de Janeiro, INPI President Luiz Otávio Pimentel highlighted the importance of the agreement signed with Anvisa in April, which resolved the impasse over the Agency's prior consent for patent applications for pharmaceutical products and processes.
According to Pimentel, decisions on applications in this area will be made more quickly, but there are still other difficulties facing the INPI, such as the issue of reducing the backlog of pending patent applications and the need to increase the number of patent examiners.
Organized by Interpat—an international association of research-based pharmaceutical companies—the event was attended by representatives from industrial property offices in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as experts from Sanofi, Bionovis, Eli Lilly, and Astellas laboratories.
Challenges in research and industrial property
Interpat representatives addressed the critical importance of patent protection for continued investment in research and development and the challenges the industry faces in drafting patent descriptions and claims aimed at biopharmaceutical innovation, such as in cases of new medical uses, alternative forms of known compounds, gene therapy, personalized medicines, among others.
Next, representatives from patent offices spoke about their current examination policies and practices, highlighting the issue of applying examination laws and guidelines to new technologies. Issues related to office management were also discussed, such as the number and training of examiners, and PPH-type examination cooperation projects.
The representatives of the IP offices at the event were: Júlio César Moreira, Director of Patents, and Cláudia Magioli, General Coordinator of Patents at INPI Brazil; Eduardo Sanchirico, from Argentina; Silvia Livera, from Mexico; Nuria Urquia, from Spain; Lawrence Cullen, from the United Kingdom; and Maria Beatriz Dellore, from the United States. Representing Interpat were Roberto Ribeiro, from Sanofi; Thiago Mares Guia, from Bionovis; James Kellerman, from Astellas; Manisha Desai and David Calligaro, from Eli Lilly; and Tatiana Garcia Schofield, from Interfarma.
See original: http://www.inpi.gov.br/noticias/escritorios-de-pi-discutem-melhores-praticas-de-exame-de-patentes-biofarmaceuticas/view