Indonesia – Patent Drugs And Generic Drugs, Which Is More Powerful?

20 July 2021

Have Partners ever heard of the term Patent Drug? Or have you ever gone to a pharmacy to buy medicine and then the employee asked if what you were going to buy was “regular” or “patent” medicine? Some people may choose a patented drug even though it is at a higher price because they think that what is meant by a patented drug is a drug that is “patented” aka more potent and efficacious in treating disease. Is that right?

PATENT DRUG vs GENERIC DRUG

A patent drug is a new drug that is protected by a patent. Patent drugs are drugs that meet the criteria for patentability, which are new, contain inventive steps and can be applied in industry. To meet these criteria, patented drugs have gone through a series of clinical trials that have been carried out by pharmaceutical companies.

Patent drugs are produced and marketed by a pharmaceutical company that has patent rights for the production of the new drug. Drugs that have been granted a patent can only be produced by the pharmaceutical company holding the patent on the drug. Other pharmaceutical companies cannot produce patented drugs without the permission of the pharmaceutical company that owns the patent.

Based on Article 22 paragraph (1) of Law Number 13 of 2016 concerning Patents for a period of 20 years from the date of receipt. Based on the article, the term of patent protection for drugs is 20 years. After the patent protection period for the drug expires, the pharmaceutical company cannot extend it. However, these types of drugs can be reproduced by other pharmaceutical companies in the form of Generic Drugs.

From this explanation, it can be understood that Patent Drugs mean patent protected drugs, while Generic Drugs are drugs whose patent protection period has expired. Generic drugs are divided into Branded Generics and Branded Generic drugs.

Generic Drugs with logos are drugs named according to the active substance they have, for example antibiotics containing Amoxicillin with the drug name “Amoxicillin”. While Branded Generic drugs are generic drugs that are named after the wishes of the pharmaceutical manufacturers that produce them, for example antibiotics such as Amoxicillin produced by the AZ company are sold under the name “Amoxicillin AZ.”

If patented drugs are more expensive, are pharmaceutical companies looking to make big profits from drugs?

Not so, patent protection on drugs has the same basic concept as patent protection as intellectual property. The purpose, apart from protecting intellectual works, is as a tribute to the inventor or creator of the intellectual work. The granting of a patent on a drug that meets the patentability requirements is granted because the development and testing of the drug must have spent a lot of investment and time from the researchers.

Because medicine is an essential thing, patents on drugs are granted without compromising the public interest. One of them is regulated in Article 109 of Law Number 13 of 2016 concerning Patents, that the government can implement its own patents in Indonesia based on considerations of urgent needs for the benefit of the community. Thus, in urgent circumstances such as in the current pandemic era, the government can take over patents on drugs through a mandatory licensing mechanism and/or implementation of Patents, especially in emergency situations related to health where in this situation it is possible to implement patents without permission from the patent owner.

Then, which one to choose? Patent Drugs or Generic Drugs?

Patented drugs have a higher price because the development and testing of these drugs must have spent a lot of investment, the patent registration process also requires costs and there is an annual fee for patent protection. Meanwhile, Generic Drugs are cheaper because these types of drugs can be produced by almost all existing pharmaceutical companies without having to pay royalties.

While Generic Medicines have the same strength, purity, stability, quality, and way of working so that there is no difference when absorbed by the body. In other words, generic drugs have the same effectiveness as patent drugs. So cheap, does not mean low quality. Because what also needs to be remembered is that each person’s body reacts to drugs differently. For this reason, you should be wiser in choosing the type of drug to be consumed. In addition to being wise, don’t be arbitrary in choosing drugs, consult the pharmacist first.

There are many other interesting things that can be discussed, so don’t hesitate to contact Am Badr & Am Badr if you have other questions related to intellectual property.