Tu Youyou, a pharmacist from China, won the 20 15 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering artemisinin, a specific antimalarial drug. But while the people of China are rejoicing,
Many media found that China was the first country to discover artemisinin, but a large number of artemisinin patents were held by foreigners. People can't help asking, as the discoverer of artemisinin, why didn't China stand on the commanding heights of artemisinin patents?
The lack of patent system is a regret of the times. The patent system in the modern sense originated in Britain in the17th century, while the patent system in China originated in the late Qing Dynasty. After the founding of New China, China drew lessons from the Soviet model and successively promulgated the Provisional Regulations on Invention-creation and Patent Protection and the Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Provisional Regulations on Invention-creation and Patent Protection.
However, these two laws and regulations have not fully played their roles. With the promulgation of 1963 "Regulations on Award for Invention" and "Regulations on Award for Technological Transformation", China replaced the patent system with a simple reward system, and the patent system in new China came to an abrupt end. It was not until 1984 that China officially promulgated the patent law, and at this point, China's modern patent system was formally established.
Artemisinin was discovered in Tu Youyou in 197 1, when the Cultural Revolution was not over and the real patent system had not been established. Therefore, scientists like Tu Youyou can't find any legal or institutional basis to apply for patents on their scientific research achievements.
Even after the promulgation of the 1984 patent law, some artemisinin technologies still cannot be patented, because the protection scope of the 1984 patent law does not include "drugs and substances obtained by chemical methods". It was not until the revised Patent Law of 1993 that it was included in the scope of patent protection. This cannot but be said to be a regret caused by the times.