January 7, 2011

Nanogen Launches Advanced Hepatitis C Medicine

January 2011

BMI Core View: Drugmakers based in emerging markets will increasingly produce hard-to-manufacture pharmaceuticals. Firms in developing countries enjoy low operating costs, but have traditionally lacked the expertise and equipment to make advanced therapeutics such as biologics. As economies in these non-traditional markets grow, capital will be released for the establishment of modern production facilities, with output destined for both domestic consumption and export.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Nanogen Biopharmaceutical has launched Pegnano (peginterferon alfa-2a) in Vietnam for the treatment of hepatitis C. The complex biologic has Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) accreditation and is generally used in combination with ribavirin.

However, Swiss multinational Roche has demanded the de-registration of Pegnano because the medicine infringes intellectual property protection for Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a), specifically patent No. 2611. Granted in 2002 by the National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam, the Pegasys patent is effective until 2017.

Nanogen's Director, Ho Nhan, is assured of Pegnano 's legitimacy. According to the 2009 revision of article 7 of Vietnam's Intellectual Property Law, the government can ban or limit the application of intellectual property rights in cases where such rights harm national defence, the welfare of people or badly affect other crucial national interests.

The company has ...

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