Canada Denies Patent For Drug, So Eli Lilly Demands $100 Million As Compensation

tay

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An increasingly problematic aspect of free trade agreements (FTAs) is the inclusion of investor-state provisions that essentially allow companies -- typically huge multinationals -- to challenge the policies of signatory governments directly.

The initial impulse behind these was to offer some protection against the arbitrary expropriation of foreign investments by less-than-democratic governments. But now corporations have realised that they can use the investor-state dispute mechanism to challenge all kinds of legitimate but inconvenient decisions in any signatory nation. Here's a good example of how this provision is being invoked to contest a refusal by Canadian courts to grant a patent on a drug,:



Eli Lilly and Company has initiated formal proceedings under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to attack Canada's standards for granting drug patents, claiming that the denial of a medicine patent is an expropriation of its property rights granted by the agreement. The investor privileges provisions included in NAFTA and other U.S. "free trade" agreements (FTAs) empower private firms to directly challenge government policies before foreign tribunals comprised of three private-sector attorneys, claiming that the policies undermine their "expected future profits." Eli Lilly's move marks the first attempt by a patent-holding pharmaceutical corporation to use U.S. "trade" agreement investor privileges as a tool to push for greater monopoly patent protections, which increase the cost of medicines for consumers and governments.


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Canada Denies Patent For Drug, So US Pharma Company Demands $100 Million As Compensation For 'Expropriation' | Techdirt
 

captain morgan

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Mar 28, 2009
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Canada ought to start manufacturing the drug directly and shut-up Eli Lilly... Drag the court case out for years to come and then just keep appealing any rulings until there is a new replacement drug that makes this one obsolete.
 

gerryh

Time Out
Nov 21, 2004
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If Canada doesn't play by the rules, then they will end up with NO new medications, plus billions in claims against them.

I see, so even if the medication doesn't do what eli says it is supposed to do, and that was the basis for granting the patent, Canada should just say..."Oh well, you can keep the patent anyway, doesn't matter if you lied through your teeth about it's effectiveness".
 

PoliticalNick

The Troll Bashing Troll
Mar 8, 2011
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I say f*ck them. If Eli Lilly wants to do business in Canada they do it by our rules or not at all. This is another example of corporations trying to control govts and a great example of why FTAs are the worst thing we have ever done.
 

damngrumpy

Executive Branch Member
Mar 16, 2005
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Politicalnick, Eli Lilly is going by the rules, under the free trade act, if you prevent them
from making profit and so on they can sue you. This is one of many reasons why I have
always been against free trade deals. Canada must look after Canadians and Canadian
interests first. We have the resources people need not just want and we should be using
what ever we want to ensure the best deals are for us and to hell with others.
Remember we are in a cut throat world, they do unto us and we are so polite.
I agree with you say to hell with them but we put ourselves in the position to be shafted in
the first place. Harper still runs around making deals with people to screw the middle class
even more.

And for some who think Trudeau was a disaster for Canada let me tell you
the Conservatives led by Harper are even worse, he is selling us out period.
 

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
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Politicalnick, Eli Lilly is going by the rules, under the free trade act, if you prevent them
from making profit and so on they can sue you. This is one of many reasons why I have
always been against free trade deals. Canada must look after Canadians and Canadian
interests first. We have the resources people need not just want and we should be using
what ever we want to ensure the best deals are for us and to hell with others.
Remember we are in a cut throat world, they do unto us and we are so polite.
I agree with you say to hell with them but we put ourselves in the position to be shafted in
the first place. Harper still runs around making deals with people to screw the middle class
even more.

And for some who think Trudeau was a disaster for Canada let me tell you
the Conservatives led by Harper are even worse, he is selling us out period.

Without free trade do you really think there would be as many homes with computers in them?
 

damngrumpy

Executive Branch Member
Mar 16, 2005
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Yes taxslave I do believe we would have just as many, we would have control
of our resources and we could dictate the terms and conditions of sale. There
would be private companies but we would be telling them the rules instead of
the other way round. I am looking forward to a government that begins to scale
back such deals and eliminate others completely. We regard America as our
friend, when we should understand they are business customers and partners
not always our friends.
As for the other deals I am sick to death of raising the third world while destroying
our way of life through trade deals that don't provide for advantage Canada.
Free Trade is allowing the companies the leavers of power and that is not in our
interest.
 

taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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Yes taxslave I do believe we would have just as many, we would have control
of our resources and we could dictate the terms and conditions of sale. There
would be private companies but we would be telling them the rules instead of
the other way round. I am looking forward to a government that begins to scale
back such deals and eliminate others completely. We regard America as our
friend, when we should understand they are business customers and partners
not always our friends.
As for the other deals I am sick to death of raising the third world while destroying
our way of life through trade deals that don't provide for advantage Canada.
Free Trade is allowing the companies the leavers of power and that is not in our
interest.

Computers made by CAW. Super expensive and worse quality than China.
 

PoliticalNick

The Troll Bashing Troll
Mar 8, 2011
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Without free trade do you really think there would be as many homes with computers in them?

Yep. Human ingenuity will find a way. Think about having all the computers in Canada made by Canadians in Canada or all the ones imported having a tariff to help fill the govt coffers. I know for most it is hard to fathom but it wasn't that many decades ago ALL imported products were subject to tariffs and actually funded 90% of the govt. In the days before income tax it funded 95% of govt. We now fund 95% of govt through income tax. I would rather have imports cost more and pay a lot less income tax as it becomes more of a user-pay based system.
 

karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
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If Canada doesn't play by the rules, then they will end up with NO new medications, plus billions in claims against them.

not true. There is still plenty of money to be had, and plenty of universities research and develop drugs as well as run drug trials. Humanity will continue to be human even when not profiting grossly.
 

PoliticalNick

The Troll Bashing Troll
Mar 8, 2011
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not true. There is still plenty of money to be had, and plenty of universities research and develop drugs as well as run drug trials. Humanity will continue to be human even when not profiting grossly.

We are also capable of changing the rules in Canada so big pharma doesn't have a leg to stand on here and allowing Canadian pharma companies to reverse-engineer all the drugs we need.
 

taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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We are also capable of changing the rules in Canada so big pharma doesn't have a leg to stand on here and allowing Canadian pharma companies to reverse-engineer all the drugs we need.

ANd ignore patents in the process?

Yep. Human ingenuity will find a way. Think about having all the computers in Canada made by Canadians in Canada or all the ones imported having a tariff to help fill the govt coffers. I know for most it is hard to fathom but it wasn't that many decades ago ALL imported products were subject to tariffs and actually funded 90% of the govt. In the days before income tax it funded 95% of govt. We now fund 95% of govt through income tax. I would rather have imports cost more and pay a lot less income tax as it becomes more of a user-pay based system.

This is how it works without free trade. Back in the early 80's my uncle got conned into buying a computer for the family business. Cost about $6000, made in USA which was a lot of money then. Still is. The thing probably had as much computing power as most wrist watches. Now you can get 100 times better machine for one tenth the price.
Did you know that car batteries are about 50% cheaper now in constant dollars than they were pre free trade?

About the only place protectionism worked was Ontario's protected and inefficent manufacturing sector.
 

Cliffy

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Nov 19, 2008
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ANd ignore patents in the process?



This is how it works without free trade. Back in the early 80's my uncle got conned into buying a computer for the family business. Cost about $6000, made in USA which was a lot of money then. Still is. The thing probably had as much computing power as most wrist watches. Now you can get 100 times better machine for one tenth the price.
Did you know that car batteries are about 50% cheaper now in constant dollars than they were pre free trade?

About the only place protectionism worked was Ontario's protected and inefficent manufacturing sector.
And how many good paying jobs were lost to free trade? Who can afford to shop anywhere else than Wally World? Less expensive equates with cheep. A computer I bought in '97 is still running today, but if you get 3 years out of a new one today, you are getting real value?
 

taxslave

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And how many good paying jobs were lost to free trade? Who can afford to shop anywhere else than Wally World? Less expensive equates with cheep. A computer I bought in '97 is still running today, but if you get 3 years out of a new one today, you are getting real value?

How many jobs were gained by free trade?
When I think of free trade I also include between the provinces. Remember the CROW rate? Cost more to ship manufactured goods East than West.
 

L Gilbert

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"Basically Eli Lilly failed to deliver its side of the bargain, since the drug doesn't work very well, so Canada refused to allow the company to retain a patent that was contingent on it being effective. What's worrying is that the drug company's present action is not just challenging that decision, but the whole approach that requires drugs to work well enough to deserve a patent -- not unreasonably."
So Canada says, "Keep your useless crap out" and E-L says, "NAFTA says that we can sell crap wherever we like".
Intereseting. I'd like to see what the tribunal says about it.
 

PoliticalNick

The Troll Bashing Troll
Mar 8, 2011
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How many jobs were gained by free trade?

None! Millions of sweatshop jobs created in China and Malaysia but no good jobs here. Unless you count all the jobs at wally-world and Mcrottens

ANd ignore patents in the process?



This is how it works without free trade. Back in the early 80's my uncle got conned into buying a computer for the family business. Cost about $6000, made in USA which was a lot of money then. Still is. The thing probably had as much computing power as most wrist watches. Now you can get 100 times better machine for one tenth the price.
Did you know that car batteries are about 50% cheaper now in constant dollars than they were pre free trade?

About the only place protectionism worked was Ontario's protected and inefficent manufacturing sector.

We are a sovereign nation are we not? Wr can pass legislation denying foreign patents any standing inside our borders. You want to sell I.side our borders it is under our terms, not some corporation's.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Nexium and Prilosec....

When the patent expired for Prilosec and was no longer a covered by health plans they tweaked the recipe, added purple dye, applied for a new patent and VOILA! Nexium! A "new" drug avaiable for insurance coverage and gouging although it's identical.

FVCK 'EM!