KILN WRITES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LINE FOR DRUGS GROUP

Lloyd’s underwriter Kiln and specialist market broker Glenrand have together developed intellectual property cover for an unnamed pharmaceuticals group, the Financial Times reports. The cover — which protects various patents and trademarks integral to the group’s future development and profitability — responds to the growing number of cases of pharmaceuticals firms engaging in unsuccessful patent protection litigation. UK-headquartered groups GlaxoSmithKline and Astra Zeneca have both lost critical court cases over patents on some of their best-selling drugs in the past 12 months, leaving the way open for the manufacture of cheaper generic copies, while in the US Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers have suffered similarly with the loss of patent protection on Prozac and Glucophage respectively. Edward Williams, who is Glenrand Intellectual Property’s managing director, has hailed the “great potential” of this “exciting new class” of business, for which the potential market is “absolutely huge”.