The Swiss are “very angry, understandably, and [the pharmaceutical] industry are angry, because the U.K. has turned around and said: ‘No, we don’t really want to do this,’” said one of the people briefed on the talks. They were granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

“The U.K. and Switzerland have always been partners internationally on promoting innovation and strong IP rights. For the U.K. to turn around to Switzerland and say: ‘Even though this is law already, we’re not willing to write it into the FTA,’ is like abandoning your best buddy.” 

By refusing to include IP protections in the deal, “it reduces the incentive to put a medicine on the U.K. market,” they explained. “Because, if you’ve got less protection for a period of time, then you’re not able to recoup as much of your money invested in the development of the medicine.”

EU overhaul

The EU is currently overhauling its pharmaceutical laws, after the Council of the EU and European Parliament reached a deal on an “EU pharma package” to update pharma’s monopoly rights for new drugs, streamline regulatory processes and oblige companies to launch in EU markets if countries request it.

Brussels is also considering a new bill that will give homegrown biotech drugs an extra year of patent protection through an SPC — a measure which will soon begin  legislative talks in the European Parliament and among national experts.

“The EU is changing its IP rights,” noted the person familiar with the talks. “So the suspicion is that, if the EU reduces their protections, then the U.K. might go: ‘Well, we want to be able to reduce our protections as well to compete for the generics industry.’”