"National Invention Patent" Protects Traditional Chinese Medicine Intellectual Property

Does the protection of intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicines in our country follow the protection of traditional Chinese medicines, or is it advancing into international patent protection? Under the background of China's accession to the WTO, the knowledge protection model of excellent varieties of traditional Chinese medicine has received more and more attention from the society. Sinopharm Pharmaceutical Group of Guangyao Pharmaceutical Group announced not long ago that its “Zhongyi” Xiaoke Pill, which is a famous medicine for the treatment of diabetes, was officially granted a national invention patent. This also means that this proprietary Chinese medicine that currently ranks among the top sellers in Guangdong has successfully transformed from the traditional Chinese traditional medicine protection model to the international general patent protection model after 12 years of national Chinese medicine protection.

Chinese medicine intellectual property protection attracts widespread attention

Obtaining an invention patent may not be new to any other industry. However, it is rare for Chinese medicine products. The reason is very simple. Traditional Chinese medicines are mostly ancestors and remedies left by their ancestors. Their formulas must not be written on medicine books or placed in safes, and some domestic companies and old Chinese medicine are proud of secret recipes. Patents, especially invention patents, have seldom patronized traditional Chinese medicine products. Because of this, there are very few proprietary Chinese patent medicines on the market that have been listed on the market for more than 10 years.

However, this situation has been changing in recent years. Especially after China's accession to the WTO, some foreign multinational drug companies have rushed to register in order to take a bite out of the Chinese market and use the traditional Chinese medicine without patent application. It is reported that only in recent years foreign companies have applied for more than 1,000 herbal medicine patents in China, of which there are no shortage of famous drugs.

56 products waiting to grab Xiaoke Pills

In the wave of this patent being registered, "Zhongyi" Xiaoke Pills is at the forefront. Xiaoke Pill is a drug completely independently innovated by Chinese experts in the early 1980s, which created a precedent for the combination of Chinese and Western medicines for the development of new hypoglycemic agents. It has been widely recognized by the market and has sold 500 million bottles so far, with annual sales of 6 million yuan. Billion yuan has become China's largest annual sales of proprietary Chinese medicines, and it is the country's largest sales of domestic sugar-lowering drugs.

Like many products during the same period, Xiaoke Wan was also adopted as a traditional Chinese medicine protection model. With the approaching of the end of the 14-year protection period in 2009, some “unknown brands” in the market will follow. According to Wu Changhai, chairman and general manager of Zhongyi Pharmaceutical, up to now, 56 products have been applied for registration of imitation Xiaoke Pills by the drug regulatory department, and 8 products have been applied for patents on Xiaoke Pills by the patent department. ! The only thing they wait for is Xiaochi Wan's protection period.

Xiaoke pills must incorporate patent protection! Since 2006, after two years of meticulous preparation, Xiaoke Pill “Pharmaceutical composition for the treatment of diabetes and its preparation method” has finally obtained the national invention patent and became the first diabetes innovative drug to obtain a national invention patent. At this point, those products waiting for the rush to kill Xiaoke Pills are also officially "dream shattered."

"Resolving patent protection issues will be an important turning point in the development of Xiaoke Pills." Wu Changhai explained that once the protection period is released, all 50 or 60 companies in the country will be copied together, which will surely make the world chaos, shoddy, Problems such as market dumping may occur, and the greatest harm will be Xiaoke Pill, a breed and patient.

“Once another person's patent has been successfully registered, our authentic enterprise cannot produce and sell any improved formulations of traditional Chinese medicines.” Wu Changhai said: “The Xiaoke Pill won the national invention patent and not only prevented the market’s The more important thing in this melee is that we can make full use of the protection period of the product for the next 20 years, and we can boldly increase investment, conduct secondary development and further pharmacological research, and promote product quality to a higher level."