on Tue, Oct 16, 2001 at 02:45:36PM -0700, Meyer Wolfsheim (wolf@priori.net) wrote:
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D- New York, said Tuesday a generic version of ciproflaxin, the antibiotic used to treat anthrax, should be made available immediately for government use even though German drugmaker BayerAG holds the patent for the drug.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/16/anthrax/ http://money.cnn.com/2001/10/16/news/generic_cipro/
To the best of my knowledge, patent law is not uniform internationally,
certainly not to the extent copyright law is. In the US, both patent
and copyright are powers granted to, not obligations required of,
Congress. There is prior precedent for lifting patent protections,
usually as anti-trust settlements.
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self