On December 30, 2022, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) and the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA)…
The centralized drug procurement agency shall check the eligibility of the products included on the platform for online procurement according to the information published by the corresponding authority, and it shall immediately remove the products from the platform in accordance with laws and/or regulations when it has found that the enterprise indeed committed the alleged infringing act. As also specified in the “Opinions”, if any patent infringement dispute arises in the process of centralized volume-based procurement or online procurement on the platform, a centralized drug procurement agency may notify the involved parties to request the competent intellectual property administrative department to resolve the dispute or to bring a lawsuit before the people’s court. Once a centralized drug procurement agency receives an opposition against the alleged products for patent infringement, it may invite the competent intellectual property administrative department to provide opinions for consultation or infringement evaluation within the specified time limit while the enterprise can participate in centralized volume-based procurement or apply for inclusion on the platform, and such opinions may be taken for reference to determine whether the alleged products will be allowed to be engaged in centralized volume-based procurement or be included on the online platform.