ORIGINAL MALADY
The British pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Wellcome has got itself entangled in another suit ( Down To Earth , Vol 5, No 6). This time, the fight is against Emory University of Atlanta, US, over the patent on its AIDS drug, Epivir, also known as 3TC. The drug had been patented in 1991 by a Canadian firm BioChem Pharma, which had originally developed the drug before striking a partnership deal with Glaxo. Emory was granted a US patent for Epivir last month. BioChem claimed that it had developed its 3TC process independently of the work done by Emory researchers and obtained a patent first.