The Supreme Court has sent a case opened vis-à-vis the well-known medicine brand Corvalol Corvalolum to the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. This decision was taken by the court on Tuesday, Head of the Legal Department of PJSC Farmak, lawyer Dmytro Taranchuk has told Interfax-Ukraine.
Having taken this decision, the Supreme Court granted the request of a third party – PJSC Farmak – on sending the case to the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court.
“This is a lawful decision and was taken in line with all procedural requirements; it will provide an impartial and objective consideration of the case,” the lawyer said.
As reported, the appeal chamber of Ukraine’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry on June 20, 2017, declared the Corvalol Corvalolum trademark used by PJSC Farmak as a well-known one.
Kyiv-based Darnitsa pharmaceutical firm in turn seeks the legal right to produce its own medicine, Corvalol. The firm appealed to the business court of Kyiv seeking to declare the decision of the ministry unlawful. The court of lower instance dismissed Darnitsa’s lawsuit, while Kyiv’s business court of appeals upheld the firm’s counterclaim.
Farmak declares that the name “Corvalol,” which has been produced since 1960, belongs to the company, as the medication was created in 1960 by Lomonosov Kyiv Chemical-Pharmaceutical Plant, and Farmak is the legal successor of the plant.
Since 1991, PJSC Farmak has been the only manufacturer of this medication in the post-Soviet space. The trademark Corvalol is protected in 15 countries of Europe and Central Asia: Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
Darnitsa pharmaceutical firm is one of the ten largest pharmaceutical producers in Ukraine and belongs to the top ten hospital suppliers. The ultimate beneficiary is Hlib Zahoriy.
PJSC Farmak is among Ukraine’s top three pharmaceutical producers and is a member of the Association Manufacturers of Medications of Ukraine (AMMU). PJSC Farmak’s beneficiary is Chairperson of PJSC Farmak’s supervisory board Filia Zhebrovska.
BRAND, CORVALOL, GRAND CHAMBER, MEDICINE, UKRAINIAN SUPREME COURT
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) will transfer its long-term contracts for medicine procurement to the national procurement agency after its creation. UNDP Coordinator Zafar Yuldashev told Interfax-Ukraine that at present, the international organization has around 20 agreements signed with medicine manufacturers.
“At the stage of the transfer of medicine procurement from international organizations to the respective national agency, we also plan to transfer long-term contracts, but the necessary condition for this transfer is the legislative possibility of signing and conducting procurement under these contracts by the newly established procurement agency,” he said.
The expert said that long-term contracts make it possible to simplify the procurement procedure and allow the manufacturer to plan production of the required quantities of medicines by the approved deadline.
“As a result, the period between the announcement of procurement and the direct delivery of medicines to patients is reduced to a minimum, and these contracts allow providing reasonable prices and saving budget funds, as the manufacturer can more efficiently plan the purchase of raw materials and loading of production facilities,” he said.
Commenting on the opportunities for lower prices for budget procurement of medicines, Yuldashev said that “competition is the key to price reduction and a global trend, including in developed countries, as well as the increase in the share of generic drugs in procurement, which makes it possible to use the allocated funds more efficiently on procurement of medical products.”
He recalled that “UNDP has strict quality criteria and procures only those drugs, the quality of which is undoubted and that meets international criteria.”
“These drugs can be both originate and generic. Thanks to the lower price, generic drugs often allow more treatment to be available for more patients,” he said.
As reported, the UNDP signed long-term contracts with four international manufacturers – Teva Pharmaceuticals (Israel), Pfizer (Netherlands), Novo Nordisk (Denmark) and Sanofi Genzyme (France) – for the supply of 11 drugs, including medicines for rare diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Gaucher’s disease, mucopolysaccharides, cystic fibrosis, other orphan diseases, hemophilia, as well as medicines to stop bleeding.
