STAT+: Indonesian ruling against ‘patent evergreening’ by pharma industry sends critical message, patient advocates say

In the latest battle over access to medicines, an Indonesian court recently struck down a provision in a law that allowed so-called patent evergreening, a tactic used by drugmakers to file additional patents containing minor tweaks to existing medicines and, ultimately, forestall competition. The decision, patient advocates say, sends an important message to other countries to challenge the industry practice. The Constitutional Court ruled that a two-year-old amendment to a law, which had remove...