Copy Drugs Continue to Plague Mexican Sector

According to Mexican research-based drug industry group AMIIF, widespread copying is costing the country's drug sector an estimated US$700mn per year. This total is equivalent to some 8% of the country's overall annual drug spending.

Nevertheless, this total is lower than the global average for copy product market share of roughly 15%, according to studies conducted by the WHO. Local surveys cited by Eli Lilly have identified illegal copying in Guadalajara, Tijuana and six other Mexican states. Nevertheless, company sources note that while copy products have been intercepted in hospitals and pharmacies elsewhere in Latin America, including in Brazil and Argentina, no such cases have so far been reported in Mexico.

Much of this can be attributed to Mexico's intellectual property regime, which is the most stringent in Latin America. Last month, federal legislators introduced a new bill to increase criminal penalties against drug copying, which included proposals to reclassify the activity as a federal offence. Meanwhile, further evidence of the current direction of Mexican patent law is provided by the decision of US research-based association PhRMA not to lobby for the country's inclusion on the Office of the US Trade Representative's (USTR) 2004 Special 301 Report on Intellectual Property.