ABPI defends maintenance of vetoes to the Law that deals with compulsory licenses

In an open letter sent to the National Congress, the ABPI (Brazilian Association of Intellectual Property), together with other entities, defended the maintenance of the vetoes to Law 12/2021, resulting in the edition of Law 14,200/21, which, in turn, amends the art. 71 of the Industrial Property legislation regarding the granting of compulsory patent licenses.

According to the document, “with the changes, exceptional situations declared by the Federal Executive or recognition of public calamity by the National Congress will automatically give rise to the possibility of issuing compulsory licenses”. He continues: “Science and innovative industries, in turn, have shown effectiveness in the production of inputs, medicines and medical devices that were able to respond to the emergency”.

Brazil, attests to the document, “has already vaccinated 88% of its population with the 1st dose and is moving quickly to reach levels of total immunization. We are a clear example that the voluntary cooperation of Brazilian laboratories and entities/companies (notably Fiocruz/AstraZeneca, Butantan/Sinovac and, more recently, Pfizer/Eurofarma), in addition to supranational agreements, are fundamental to access to products to combat the pandemic. “.

The document concludes that, despite the context of the pandemic, “rare were the countries that used the granting of compulsory licenses to fight the current pandemic. And very few changed their laws to address the issue”.

See the full document below.

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