Big pharmaceutical companies sometimes try to flout evidence-based innovation when they attempt to claim patents for wildly different illnesses with the same medicine and then sue the state with TTIP-like “investor protection” mechanisms if their patent applications are denied.
Pharma giant Eli Lilly has sued the the Canadian Government for 500 million dollars in compensation for the invalidation of patents that Canadian Courts had found had failed to comply with patentability requirements while Canadian authorities have accused Eli Lilly of “guessing for patents” and “not adequately disclosing innovation to the public”.
Believe it or not, for the anti-psychotic drug Olanzapine, the Canadian Government listed 16 patent applications for many different disorders: for excessive aggression, fungal dermatitis, bipolar disorder, sexual dysfunction, insomnia, nicotine withdrawal, tic disorder, anorexia, autism, mental handicaps, pain, substance abuse and Alzheimer’s disease.
For the attention-deficit drug Atomoxetine, Eli Lilly had filed for 12 separate patents between 1992 and 2004 claiming it could treat psoriasis, stuttering, incontinence, hot flashes, anxiety, learning disabilities, tic disorders and, finally, Attention-deficit disorder.
It all sounds like a farfetched joke but it is sadly true. If “investor protection” mechanisms like ISDS are not removed from TTIP, all of the EU could soon be turned into the wild west of “scattershooting” for medicine patents under the threat of being sued by big pharma. What would be badly damaged is not only evidence-based innovation that benefits the common good but, as well, the democratic sovereignty of national courts and legislatures.