The Multinational Monitor

Oct./Nov. 2002 - VOLUME 23 - NUMBER 10 & 11

T H E    L A W R E N C E    S U M M E R S    M E M O R I A L   A W A R D

THE LAWRENCE SUMMERS MEMORIAL AWARD*

The October/November 2002 Lawrence Summers Memorial Award* goes to drug manufacturer Schering-Plough.

Schering-Plough is the manufacturer of the allergy medication Claritin, a huge revenue earner for the company. It has fought desperately to extend the effective patent of the drug, and to prevent generic versions of it from becoming available.

Here is how the Wall Street Journal described one Schering-Plough tactic:

"Schering-Plough had hoped to extend its exclusive hold over Claritin to 2004 and beyond because of a related patent on a chemical cousin of Claritin, the Clarinex patent. Clarinex is created in the human body when people swallow Claritin, and Clarinex's patent expires in 2004. Schering-Plough argued that anyone swallowing a generic version of Claritin would create Clarinex in their body without the company's permission. By selling their Claritin knockoffs, generic manufacturers would induce patients into undertaking this infringement, Schering-Plough argued, and such inducement is illegal. This argument has been used by other drug makers -- and dismissed by other judges."

Source: Gardiner Harris, "Court Rules Against Schering on Claritin Patent Protection," The Wall Street Journal, August 9, 2002.

*In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and dirty industries from industrialized to developing countries. "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?" wrote Summers, who went on to serve as Treasury Secretary during the Clinton administration. "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City." Summers later said the memo was meant to be ironic.