The 2019 edition of Thomson Reuters’ Practical Law Life Sciences Global Guide  has been released, with its Pharmaceutical Intellectual Property and Competition Law in Cambodia chapter written by practitioners from Tilleke & Gibbins’ Phnom Penh office.The guide is a Q&A-style overview of the regulatory frameworks for the life sciences industries across jurisdictions worldwide. This chapter on pharmaceutical IP and competition law in Cambodia addresses the following issues in the country’s legal landscape for life sciences:

On February 19, 2019, by amending the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522, Thailand caught the cannabis industry by surprise and became the first Asia-Pacific country to legalize medicinal cannabis. While hemp had been approved for use in industry since 2018 (see here), the amendment of the Narcotics Act B.E. 2522, providing for a Thai FDA registration pathway for medicinal cannabis, was largely unexpected.   

A steady increase in the number of companies transferring their IP assets to Thailand has seen an increase in the need for these companies to rely on the courts to protect their complex scientific and technological advancements. Recent developments have seen Thailand’s court system rising to the challenge, using international standards of protection including:

Rightsholders enforcing trademark, industrial design, or patent rights in Vietnam will often be advised by counsel of the need to obtain a “VIPRI opinion” as a first step in an enforcement case. The Vietnam Intellectual Property Research Institute (VIPRI) is the only agency in Vietnam authorized to provide expert opinions on IP infringement.

On July 12, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar issued Notification 1/2019, which announced that foreign individuals and foreign entities will be permitted to invest in up to 35% of the shares in Myanmar companies listed on the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX).

On June 13, 2019, Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property (DIP) published a new edition of the Guidelines for Examining Patent and Petty Patent Applications, with the aim of harmonizing and updating the examination of patent and petty patent applications in Thailand. The new edition of the Guidelines will replace the previous version published in 2012.

On January 28, 2019, Thailand, as a member state of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), became the 49th contracting party to accede to theO Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print-Disabled, which became legally binding on Thailand on April 28, 2019. In order to comply, Thailand enacted an amendment to the Copyright Act B.E. 2537 (1994) which became effective on March 11, 2019, in the form of Copyright Act (No. 4) B.E. 2561 (2018).

Crowdfunding in Thailand has generally been regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and this covered a narrow scope of crowdfunding activities, including offering newly-issued shares via “electronic systems or networks.” Recently, the SEC issued new regulations expanding the scope of permitted crowdfunding activities to include other parts of equity crowdfunding. SEC Notification Tor Jor.