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Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

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Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#11

Post by killingtime74 »

pedalpete wrote: post #3

I thought I had a decent handle on patent law, but maybe I'm missing something here. Yes, the patent won't be valid for Canada, but you can't import a product into the US which would infringe on a US patent. So, though there may be a small amount that would slip through the cracks, it isn't as if anyone in the US can now manufacture Semaglutide and distribute it. Canada is such a small market, that many companies don…

Don't worry about the law think about the practical impact. It's now completely legal to ignore the patent in Canada so the price in Canada will plummet.

Canadian pharmacies can legally sell it and Americans (and all other foreigners for that matter) traveling there can legally buy it.

Unlike the criminal law, Novo nordisk would have to go after every single person individually and make the case that they are infringing the American patent. This is all without the help of the police or customs, as a private civil matter.

Obviously this would be uneconomic for Novo Nordisk. You can't search anyone as you don't have any warrants, as it's not a crime and then even if you could, you need to prove that the drugs they have on them were purchased in Canada.

Foreigners who currently pay a huge amount of money would only have to make one trip to Canada in however long period it takes for the drugs to expire. I know I would certainly make a day trip if I was using this drug.

Intellectual property law firms offer services to renew and watch registrations like this worldwide and it would have been very simple to have a contract with one of them.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#12

Post by digianarchist »

pedalpete wrote: post #3

I thought I had a decent handle on patent law, but maybe I'm missing something here. Yes, the patent won't be valid for Canada, but you can't import a product into the US which would infringe on a US patent. So, though there may be a small amount that would slip through the cracks, it isn't as if anyone in the US can now manufacture Semaglutide and distribute it. Canada is such a small market, that many companies don…

$450 CAD I believe.

US consumers would have to travel to Canada for injections which isn't practical unless you live on a border town.

It's unlikely to meet the bar for personal importation as you say.

That probably won't stop people from trying. There's already a huge market for illegal compounds and GPL-1 drugs are available alongside the usual testosterone and other steroids.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#14

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e »

jzebedee wrote: post #4

> Prof. Michael Hoffman from Toronto put me on to the Canadian Patent Database, where you can find that Novo did file a patent there for semaglutide. . .but the last time they paid the annual maintenance fee on it was 2018! > You can even find a letter where their lawyers send a refund request for the 2017 maintenance fee ($250) because Novo apparently wanted some more time to see if they wanted to pay it. > On the s…

I always wonder-in this case of such an epic company fuck up, does anyone ever get fired? Or is responsibility so diffuse that nobody is ultimately responsible?

Pharma companies are really nothing more than holders of time-limited, expensive, exclusive IP. The number one priority should be to maintain those protections as long as possible. How could any patent be allowed to lapse, even if there was limited commercial value, let alone, a blockbuster drug making billions?

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#15

Post by OutOfHere »

jasongill wrote: post #5
paulpauper wrote: post #2

So would it be possible to buy the drug in Canada and ship to US?

not legally, but anything is possible

There is nothing illegal about it. People get medicines from abroad all the time that are not generic domestically. It's not a controlled substance. One might have to go through unofficial channels though. In fact, I know people domestically who already get it cheaply from elsewhere abroad.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#17

Post by rootusrootus »

digianarchist wrote: post #12
pedalpete wrote: post #3

I thought I had a decent handle on patent law, but maybe I'm missing something here. Yes, the patent won't be valid for Canada, but you can't import a product into the US which would infringe on a US patent. So, though there may be a small amount that would slip through the cracks, it isn't as if anyone in the US can now manufacture Semaglutide and distribute it. Canada is such a small market, that many companies don…

$450 CAD I believe. US consumers would have to travel to Canada for injections which isn't practical unless you live on a border town. It's unlikely to meet the bar for personal importation as you say. That probably won't stop people from trying. There's already a huge market for illegal compounds and GPL-1 drugs are available alongside the usual testosterone and other steroids.

If you have a prescription from a provider in Canada, the limit for personal use is 90 days. As long as it is a legal drug in the US -- which I don't think necessarily includes that it's patented here, just that it's approved by the FDA.

> There's already a huge market for illegal compounds and GPL-1 drugs are available alongside the usual testosterone and other steroids.

The peptide and oils markets are both big, but largely separate -- the peptides folks don't seem to want to be associated with oils. Within peptides, GLP1s definitely dominate, though the other options are pretty popular. In my experience it seems like GLP1s are kind of a "gateway peptide" -- a lot of folks start with a GLP1 on the gray market, and then start to branch out and try the other options available.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#18

Post by gpt5 »

jzebedee wrote: post #4

> Prof. Michael Hoffman from Toronto put me on to the Canadian Patent Database, where you can find that Novo did file a patent there for semaglutide. . .but the last time they paid the annual maintenance fee on it was 2018! > You can even find a letter where their lawyers send a refund request for the 2017 maintenance fee ($250) because Novo apparently wanted some more time to see if they wanted to pay it. > On the s…

Canadian manufacturers (Sandoz and Apotex) are preparing to launch their own generic versions in early 2026.

I bet many Americans would travel to Canada to buy it there (despite the legality concerns). The medications lasts 2 years in a refrigerator.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#19

Post by ionwake »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #14
jzebedee wrote: post #4

> Prof. Michael Hoffman from Toronto put me on to the Canadian Patent Database, where you can find that Novo did file a patent there for semaglutide. . .but the last time they paid the annual maintenance fee on it was 2018! > You can even find a letter where their lawyers send a refund request for the 2017 maintenance fee ($250) because Novo apparently wanted some more time to see if they wanted to pay it. > On the s…

I always wonder-in this case of such an epic company fuck up, does anyone ever get fired? Or is responsibility so diffuse that nobody is ultimately responsible? Pharma companies are really nothing more than holders of time-limited, expensive, exclusive IP. The number one priority should be to maintain those protections as long as possible. How could any patent be allowed to lapse, even if there was limited commercial…

after working in many companies for decades I can guarantee that the person responsible is some middle manager, who will just blame one of her/his workers who had that piece of work "deprioritised" to instead focus on the styling of a spreadsheet. The paper trail will point to the manager, who will just claim it was allocated to a problem character.

The cartharsis comes in knowing that them firing the innocent just keeps them repeating the mistake.

Re: Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake

#20

Post by rahimnathwani »

AIUI, because they let the patent expire, the drug was not subject to price regulation by the government. So they could charge whatever.

And during most of that time, they were still protected by 'data exclusivity' which means that any generic producer could not get approved without doing their own clinical trials, until 8 years had passed.

So they gave up some period of exclusivity in return for being able to charge a higher price when they still had a monopoly.

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