First court case for Drug Patent Linkage

11.30.2021

China : First court case for Drug Patent Linkage

The Japanese drug manufacturer Chugai Pharmaceutical sued a local China company for patent infringement at the IP court in Beijing, China, seeking to stay the government approval process for marketing a generic drug of the Eldecalcitol same effect.

It is the first case after China regulating the Article 76 of the 4th Amendment of Patent Law effective 1 June 2021, whereby a “dual track” early resolution mechanism is implemented for resolving drug patent disputes during the government approval process of marketing generic drugs. The Beijing IP Court is one of the 2 venues for the Article 76 proceedings, the other venue is the CNIPA (Patent Office).