Food and drug safety ministry to hold September patent-linkage training

The food and drug safety ministry said it will hold general and advanced September training for pharmaceutical industry staff on the drug approval-patent linkage system.

The two-day program runs Sept. 2-3 at Conference Room 402 at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The ministry will select 200 participants for each course on a first-come, first-served basis, taking into account the number from each company.

The ministry said the courses will provide step-by-step practical training matched to participants' levels. It said it expected the program to "greatly help" strengthen patent expertise and capacity across the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and would continue offering tailored education at different levels.

The system considers potential infringement of patents on new drugs during product-approval procedures based on safety and efficacy data. The Sept. 2 general course will cover the system and priority sales approval, using practical cases for staff new to the work. The Sept. 3 advanced course will examine patent dispute and companies' evergreening strategies, including response cases, led by patent attorneys with extensive practical experience.

The general course includes pharmaceutical patent-information searches, while the advanced course covers domestic and international searches and use of the information in practice. Applications through the QR code in the course notice will be accepted from Aug. 10 through Aug. 20. Participants will need to bring personal laptops for the practical exercises.