Novo Nordisk Loses Canadian Patent Protection For Blockbuster Diabetes Drug Over Unpaid $450 Fee (science.org)
- Reference: 0178065793
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/25/06/16/1438211/novo-nordisk-loses-canadian-patent-protection-for-blockbuster-diabetes-drug-over-unpaid-450-fee
- Source link: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/novo-nordisk-s-canadian-mistake
When the 2019 fee came due at $450 with late penalties, Novo never paid despite having a one-year grace period. Canadian patent authorities confirmed the patent "cannot be revived" once lapsed. The oversight is particularly costly given Canada represents the world's second-largest semaglutide market, worth billions annually. Generic drugmaker Sandoz plans to launch a competing version in early 2026, while Novo's U.S. patent protection extends until at least 2032.
[1] https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/novo-nordisk-s-canadian-mistake
Hahaha (Score:2)
This reminds me of when the Air Force had a $35 billion dollar KC-X Tanker replacement contract up for grabs but US Aerospace-Antonov delivered their bid 5 minutes late because the delivery guy couldn't find the office. (They later sued the Air Force (and lost) saying the courier received bum directions from someone at the gate.)
Penny-wise (Score:3)
I have a hard time imagining a corporate bureaucracy involving lawyers to be efficient enough to make it worth not simply paying a $250 fee over having any internal conversation about it.
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I imagine an overflowing mail inbox that is not getting processed because the team now works from home 100%...
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The mailbox might be flowing over with spam.
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Corporations have a staff that manages their IP, one of their jobs is reviewing their portfolio to make sure it meets corporate goals. A patent they do not see as of value will not have ongoing fees paid, simple as that. It's not about how much money was saved, it's about a failure to identify the value of the particular patent entirely.
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They probably got mixed up because they were trying to game the first year?
It seems like they couldn't decide on 2017, which I assume would impact their final year of protection.
In the process they got mixed up and failed to keep things going in 2019.
So it wasn't about the $450, it was about the $x they'd get with that extra year of protection.
They probably gutted middle management, as this is exactly the type of thing a good middle manager will hassle people about until it gets handled.
Investors (Score:2)
I think Novo Nordisk investors should be rightly angry with the management who let it lapse. But whatever.
Oh that's going to be expensive (Score:1)
hahahaahahahahhahaha
Lapsed 5 years ago?? (Score:2)
so why is this making news only now?
Just buy the patent (Score:2)
They make a few billion a year from this, right? Given how much it can save a healthcare system to massively reduce weight related problems in the population, it would make sense for government to just buy out the patent so that much cheaper generic versions can be available to the citizens.
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Government....make sense.
See the problem here?
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No I don't, sorry.
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A patent is property manufactured by the government that ceases to exist if the government ceases to exist. It's not clear why a government would buy a patent, they may as well just pay a corporation for nothing. Better off funding research, which until now the government does, then NOT granting such patents (or granting patents but making research funding contingent on pricing control). Buying a patent by the government is merely invalidating that patent, something a government can do for free, theoreti
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The government buys the patent and then either contracts to have it manufactured, or just releases it for free so anyone can make it and hopes that the free market drives the price down.
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I do understand the concept, I'm saying that it's a Rube Goldberg approach to the issue. The patent is granted by the government in the first place, they don't need to give it away and then buy it back.
And why would a company accept a contract to manufacture a drug when it is far more profitable to apply for patents and then sell them back to the government?
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Will ICE start searching people crossing into the US from Canada for generic semaglutide?
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For private use with a prescription, I don't see why it should be illegal.
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> For private use with a prescription, I don't see why it should be illegal.
Because the US patents make it illegal to import without permission from the patent holder. I don't think there are any personal use exceptions for patents.
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and then the jail / prison ends paying for full price for there drugs while they wait for there day in court?
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I'm not following your logic there. AFAICT from TFS, the patent in Canada has *lapsed* and no longer exists so anyone can manufacture this stuff (presumably subject to suitable medical grade quality controls) and sell it in Canada at whatever price they choose, including the government or their appointed sub-contractor if they wanted to. That means *every* version of semaglutide in Canada is going to be at generic prices real soon now anyway, because the market will be saturated with them.
If the govern
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He's referring to other countries like the US where the patent is still valid and will be for some years yet. Obviously in Canada, the patent no longer exists so there's nothing to buy or sell.
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Why would it be cheaper for the government to buy than the expected profit?
It'd be practically zero sum (technically it may get more use of the government purchases for expected profit under the current system, but it'd be a very very expensive purchase, and one that would benefit a subset of the population).