“Chaotic” is how Jorge Contreras, a law professor at the University of Utah, describes a struggle by companies and governments to navigate intellectual property law in the urgent search for Covid-19 treatments.
When AbbVie, the US drug company, dropped its patent rights for its Kaletra antiviral drug — identified as a potential treatment for Covid-19 — it was clear that the pandemic had upended the normal rules of the pharmaceuticals sector.
AbbVie’s move came after the Israeli government issued a compulsory licence — overriding normal patent protection — to allow the sale of copycat versions of the drug. For Israel to do this, say industry executives, shows that these are not normal times: the country is the home of Teva Pharmaceuticals and has an economy that is heavily dependent on R&D.