Last week, the US Trade Representative issued its annual Special 301 report that singles out US trading partners that fail to respect intellectual property rights. The rankings are closely watched by many industries including, of course, pharma and, as a practical matter, can influence myriad economic interactions down the road.

And so American University’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property has compared the latest report with actual industry submissions to the US Trade Rep by both PhRMA and the International Intellectual Property Association. The upshot - most of the countries which the industry groups requested USTR to place in the report are there…

- Of the 47 nations named by the IIPA, 36 are in the report; and
- Of the 48 countries cited by PhRMA, 36 made it into the report.

Two related important concerns for both industry groups were a lack of timely, effective prosecutions of IP infringers, and sentences handed down by court which the industries viewed were not tough enough to deter further infringement, according to the AU program, which adds that 65 percent of the countries listed in the Special 301 report are cited for one or both of these offenses.

A top concern for drugmakers is protection of test data. And 20 of 33 countries, or 61 percent, that PhRMA asked to have cited for inadequate data protection are included in the report. However, the US Trade Rep was less responsive to some other concerns. Only 36 percent of the nations cited by PhRMA for regulatory approval of generic versions of brand-name drugs still on patent were included in the report, and none of the seven countries cited by PhRMA for parallel imports were included.