[메디게이트뉴스 서민지 기자] A fine of 2,297 billion won was imposed on charges of interfering with the sale of generics by abusing the lawsuit against infringement of the patent right by Daewoong Pharmaceutical.
On the 3rd, the Fair Trade Commission announced that Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Daewoong decided to file a lawsuit against the infringement of patent rights and impose a correction order and a penalty of 2,297 billion won for acts that hindered the sale of generic drugs, and decided to prosecute each corporation to the prosecution. Revealed.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical launched’Albis’, a complex anti-ulcer drug composed of three ingredients in 2000. When the original patent expired around January 2013, competitors’ generics also entered the market in earnest.
The original patent for this is a composition patent, which states that a gastrointestinal drug composed of three components, such as bismuth, ranitidine, and sucralfate, is effective for treatment. The subsequent patent is a double-jung patent that can prevent drug-drug interactions.If ranitidine is covered with a film and then the other two components are prepared on the outside, the effect of inhibiting absorption due to the interaction of ranitidine with sucralfate is prevented. It can be done.
After that, as the original patent expired in January 2013, when generic companies entered the market in earnest, Daewoong Pharmaceutical launched Albis D, a follow-up improved product in 2015, to protect sales.
A subsequent patent for this is that if the size of the particles of bismuth and sucralfate is adjusted within a certain range, the same effect as Albis is obtained even if it is not made into a double tablet as in Albis products, but into a simple mixed tablet.
“In order to effectively defend the entry of generics into the market, Daewoong Pharmaceutical has made a plan to file a patent infringement lawsuit against competitors such as Pavis Pharmaceuticals and Ahn Kook Pharmaceuticals by using the subsequent patents of Albis and Alvis D,” Revealed.
Manager Lim said, “Daewoong Pharmaceutical has filed a lawsuit even though it knew that these competitors’ products did not infringe on its patents,” he said. “Once a patent infringement lawsuit is filed regardless of whether or not the actual patent has been infringed, hospitals or wholesalers “It takes advantage of the fact that it is difficult for customers to convert transactions to generics that are likely to be discontinued in the future.”
According to the FTC, the first violation of the law is related to the Pavis restrictions. Even though Daewoong Pharmaceutical was clearly aware that it did not infringe on the double-jeong patent because it conducted an experiment to directly collect Pavis products from the market and measure the film rupture time before filing a lawsuit, in order to hinder the sale of generics, a provisional lawsuit against infringement of patents was carried out. Filed.
In addition, in the course of the litigation, the lawsuit delayed strategy, such as submitting irrelevant reports, and it was found that the lawsuit and sales were linked to the lawsuit and the sales of Pavis, such as actively notifying customers that the sale of Pavis products could be stopped due to a temporary injunction lawsuit.
The FTC said, “This caused Pavis Pharmaceutical’s business to contract and hampered, such as some pharmaceutical companies that were reviewing the manufacturing consignment of Pavis Pharmaceuticals changed their customers to Daewoong Pharmaceutical.
Another case of damage is Ahn Kook Pharmaceutical. The FTC said, “Daewoong Pharm applied for a patent in a hurry before the release of Albis D. During the patent application process, the patent was registered by manipulating key data such as the number and number of bioequivalence test data. Increased bioequivalence test data from 3 to 5 and detailed details. “Daewoong Pharmaceutical filed a patent infringement lawsuit to hinder sales when the generic of Ankook Pharmaceutical was released, despite the fact that Daewoong Pharmaceuticals deceptively obtained a patent through the submission of false data,” he said.
In this regard, the Fair Trade Commission considered the act of inducing unfair customer inducement among the types of unfair trade practices of the Fair Trade Act as an incentive to trade with itself by interfering with the transaction of competitors and their customers through unfair patent infringement litigation. Therefore, it was decided to impose a correction order and a fine of 2,297 billion won on Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Daewoong, and to prosecute each corporation to the prosecution.
The FTC said, “Unfair patent infringement litigation by the patentee not only undermines the fair competition order, but also makes it difficult for new business operators to enter the market, thereby hindering consumers’ right to choose cheap drugs.” It is meaningful in that it was the first to sanction the act that interfered with the transaction.”
In particular, “the act of filing a disguised lawsuit solely for the purpose of obstructing the business of a competitor, even though there is no possibility of winning, is a typical patent abuse that is actively regulated by foreign competition authorities such as the United States.” “We will continue to monitor illegal activities such as abuse of patent rights.”