Japan drugmakers feeling the heat from copycats

Tokyo

JAPAN's pharmaceutical companies are struggling to do business in emerging nations due to the proliferation of copycat drugs, with a Chinese firm allegedly making a drug for Ebola that Fujifilm Holdings Corp says infringes on its intellectual property rights.

Fujifilm plans to file a lawsuit against Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group to suspend production of a copycat of Avigan, whose patent is held by Fujifilm. But some emerging nations are not making active efforts to protect intellectual property rights.