ISLAMABAD, March 8: The government would introduce amendments in the Patents Amendment Ordinance 2002 following consultation with the local and multinational pharmaceutical companies. This was stated by Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan in a meeting with representatives of MNCs as well as local pharmaceutical companies here on Tuesday.

The multinational pharmaceutical companies expressed their concerns regarding Patents Ordinance. They were of the view that the amendments were not in consonance with Intellectual Property Rights Protection in Pakistan.

The commerce minister showed full understanding of the issue and said that consultations would be made with to reach a consensus for introducing certain amendments in the ordinance, which might be equally beneficial for both local and multinational pharma companies.

It may be recalled that to provide intellectual property rights protection in Pakistan, and to comply with the WTO Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) standards, five laws/amendments have been promulgated.

Among these five laws the Ministry of Industries and Production prepared the draft of the Patents Ordinance in December 2000. Consequently the Patent Act 1911 was repealed.

Upon this the local pharmaceutical industry expressed reservations that the Patents Ordinance 2000 did not properly utilize the flexibilities provided under the TRIPs Agreement. Consequently a special meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet reviewed the Patents Ordinance 2000 and proposed amendments. These amendments were promulgated as Patents Amendment Ordinance 2002.

But this Ordinance received criticism from the multinational pharmaceutical companies. They are of the view that the effectiveness of the patent protection as provided in the Patents Ordinance 2000 has been diluted by way of amendments instituted in Patents Amendment Ordinance 2002.