EU - The European Generic Medicines Association publishes a report on patent system and generic drugs

European Union. The European Generic Medicines Association publishes a report on patent system and generic drugs
The European Generic Medicines Association (EGA) recently published a report on patent-related barriers to market entry for generic medicines in the EU. According to EGA, several flaws of the European patent system prevent the effective entry of cheap generic medicines onto the market.
The "patent linkage", i.e. the practice of linking market approval for generic drugs to a series of conditions related to the original patented pharmaceutical products, is identified as one of the main barriers for generic medicines. According to the report, this practice is inconsistent with European law. Moreover, EGA argues that national medicine agencies apply it in different and ill-defined ways, often under the pressure of the industry, thus hindering the timely and effective introduction of generic medicines onto the market.
The EGA report also points out other weaknesses of the patent system having the same effect, such as the granting of low-quality pharmaceutical patents, the patent thickets and follow-on patents and the long patent litigation procedures.