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The China patent office’s re-examination board has upheld June 2015 rejection of a critical sofosbuvir patent, denying Gilead’s appeal on I-MAK’s winning case. The patent office ruled that the sofosbuvir prodrug did not deserve a patent under the law. This comes as I-MAK just filed a new legal challenge against the sofosbuvir base compound in China on April 19th, 2017.
Freeing sofosbuvir of its unmerited patents in the country would open the door to affordable generic treatment for millions, potentially saving $59 billion – or over half of China’s annual spending on prescription drugs. If successful, this would unlock the market for affordable treatment around the world by creating new opportunities for Chinese suppliers to export both active drug ingredients (APIs) and finished dosage product to the rest of the world, benefitting 80 million people worldwide in need of treatment.
More information on the China challenges can be found here: http://www.i-mak.org/news-releases/2017/4/20/building-on-2015-rejection-of-gileads-patent-application-for.html