Biocad biotech company, based in St Petersburg, is going to conclude a settlement agreement with AstraZeneca AB. Thanks to this, the Russian company will be able to use the composition for breast cancer therapy patented by the foreign competitor. Earlier, Biocad had already reached an agreement with another competitor, Yeda, about produsing a drug for multiple sclerosis on the basis of a sublicence agreement. In the result Biocad took up 3% of the market with an annual turnover of 1.5 billion roubles. If the terms of the agreement with AstraZeneca are similar, the pharma manufacturer from St Petersburg will be able to claim half of the segment worth 3.74 billion roubles. However, as Maxim Ali, Partner and Head of IP/IT practice at Maxima Legal, pointed out to Delovoy Peterburg newspaper, Biocad clearly had an advantage in the negotiations with Yeda, previously winnig the dispute with Yeda in Rospatent (the Federal Service for Intellectual Property). But while in the case of AstraZeneca Rospatent refused Biocad.
In the expert’s assessment, the conclude a settlement agreement is a recent trend. “The move to amicable settlements is justified. Disputes between pharmaceutical companies are very expensive. Reconciliation allows you to dot all i’s and prevent the emergence of new litigation. Patent disputes are an integral part of the economy. On the one hand, companies have to defend their developments and seek a monopoly over them at the expense of the patent. On the other hand, they have to clear the field for other people’s patents. In such a paradigm, concluding an agreement that preserves one’s patent or allows the use of another’s is a reasonable compromise,” Maxim Ali stressed
