Ozempic is the #1 drug in Canada with annual $2.5bn in sales.
However, Swiss drug maker Sandoz looks to benefit as it filed to make a generic version for Canada and Brazil.
It seems that Novo Nordisk didn’t pay a $250 patent maintenance fee even after reminders and so the patent lapsed and opened the door to competitors.
Imagine investing billions in R&D to bring a drug to market and then not pay an administrative fee and lose a $2.5bn market.
This might hurt Novo Nordisk more as the article speculates that there can be a flow from Canada to the US which would likely grow if cheap generics arrive in Canada.
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/novo-nordisk-s-canadian-mistake
that is pretty incredible! if true, someone is going to be very soon taken to court… (most of the regulatory / legal work of this type is outsourced to specialized local companies)…
I guess somebody had to sign up for RAV recently…
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Well, that’s the thing…companies leave these “routine” patent maintenance payment to the grunts. And if it goes wrong, guess whose head rolls? We used to have a rigorous schedule where the buck stopped with the licensing executive. If it got “forgotten,” the help didn’t take the hit.
My favourite theme - most managers don’t have a clue what the people who they manage do all day.
So people leave or get fired and some essential tasks just get forgotten.
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My goodness, it isn’t rocket science to set up a tracking and alert system for patent payments…we had one in 1982. Reminders came to the admin staff and to the execs. If licensees were responsible for reimbursing the maintenance payments, there was also an automatic billing to them. Yikes.
True
But every system has its weak points, for example, such a system needs someone to keep the email addresses updated especially one that is over 40 years old.
the ‘ultramatrix’ organizational structures have made so much damage to the pharma companies…