Maxim Ali commented for DP the situation with compulsory licensing of medications

In the end of June amendments to the Russian legislation allowing the Government of Russian Federation to use patents to produce and export medication without rightsholders’ permission came into force. In such a case the rights for the patent remain with its owner and the Government has to pay compensation for compulsory licensing.

According to Maxim Ali, Partner, Head of IP / IT practice at Maxima Legal, the question about calculation the amount of compensation still has no answer. He explained that sums of compensation that were previously stated by the Government were obviously disproportionate. For example, the draft decree of the Government of Russian Federation made by Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia had problems both with low sums of compensation and with lack of correlation between the amount of compensation and the specificity of usage of the patented technology.

Commenting the situation with the Gilead Pharmasset LLC who first faced the compulsory licensing, Maxim drew «Delovoy Petersbug»’s attention to the fact that the Court imposed a duty to pay the compensation on «Pharmsintez». «This means that the rigtsholder is facing the risk of pay inability as it has to claim money from the private company and not from the Government. This shows that the fair mechanism of defining the compensation still doesn’t exist» – told the expert.

To read the full article (in Russian) please go to Delovoy Peterburg website >>>