Pfizer Inc, the world's largest drugmaker, won the right to be the sole seller of its impotence drug Viagra in China, stopping a dozen Chinese companies from selling cheaper copies.
A Beijing court overturned a 2004 decision by China's patent review board that permitted the Chinese drugmakers to sell copies, Pfizer spokesman Paul Fitzhenry said in a telephone interview on Saturday. The ruling will benefit Pfizer because it may mean better patent protection for the 20 drugs it plans to start selling in China by 2010, Fitzhenry said.
"We see the decision as an encouraging development for all knowledge-based companies like Pfizer who want to bring innovative products to the Chinese market," Fitzhenry said.
Viagra is one of the world's most counterfeited drugs, according to the WHO. Viagra was used by 23 million men last year and had worldwide sales of US$1.6 billion last year.
About 8 percent to 10 percent of the world's medical supply consists of counterfeit products, according to US Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Scott Gottlieb in a March 3 posting on the agency's Web site.
The WHO estimates that about US$35 billion in counterfeit drugs are sold each year.
"The result is risks to patients' health," Gottlieb said in March. "Either risk to their safety directly if the products are dangerous, or risks from people suffering complications."
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
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