more of this under the TPP. Eli Lilly files $500M NAFTA suit against Canada over drug patents
Eli Lilly is accusing Canada of violating its obligations to foreign investors under the North American Free Trade Agreement by allowing its courts to invalidate patents for two of its drugs.
The company officially filed a complaint this week with NAFTA seeking $500 million US in compensation.
The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant had already notified the federal government in June of its intention to submit a NAFTA complaint, but filed the formal "notice of arbitration" on Thursday after it failed to settle the dispute through negotiation.
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While the tribunal can only award damages and can't force Canada to change its laws, some argue that the latter is, ultimately, what Eli Lilly is after.
The company's so-called investor-state challenge "marks the first attempt by a patent-holding pharmaceutical corporation to use the extraordinary investor privileges provided by U.S. 'trade' agreements as a tool to push for greater monopoly patent protections, which increase the cost of medicines for consumers and governments," Public Citizen said.
If Eli Lilly is successful in getting the NAFTA tribunal to approve its claim for compensation, it "could expose Canada to a slew of investor-state attacks from other drug companies that have had patents invalidated because their patent applications failed to show or predict that the medicines would provide the promised benefits," the group said.
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/eli-lilly-files-500m-nafta-suit-against-canada-over-drug-patents-1.1829854
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