International Legal and Ethical Issues.

International legal and ethical issues.

Gentura is a Pharmaceutical company of Candore, which made a contract with CAD Mex Pharma, a U.S. based firm. The contract was to license the CAD Mex Pharma technology and in return CAD Mex Pharma got worldwide licensing rights of Pro-Perz. The current situation arises when a rare viral disease became epidemic whose drug is ViroBlax, a drug whose patent rights are reserved by CAD Mex Pharma under this contract. As the drug was to be utilizing nation wide for treatment, so the government decided to subsidize it and as Candorean government is the major shareholder of the company, Gentura had to consider it but in doing so, payment contract terms with Cad Mex Pharma were violated, giving rise to contractual dispute between two companies.

In legal context, Cad Mex Pharma under choice of law clause chose the Candorean regulations for technology import contracts, the reasoning behind this choice was Candore was neither at that time signatory of any international trade agreement nor was the member of a World Trade organization (WTO) (LotsofEassey.com: "International Legal and Ethical issues"). Another legal clause was dispute resolution forum clause, under which International Arbitratory option was chosen and within that Binding Arbitratory option chose was made (LotsofEassey.com: "International Legal and Ethical issues"). Binding Arbitratory was chosen to provide more private and circumvent most likely bad media hype incase any disagreement happened (S. Mithra, wisegeek.com) and to solve clash in the best interest of Cad Mex Pharma and Gentura.

Now let us consider options of choice of law and forum selection options. As previously addressed, it is mentioned in the contract that Candorean Regulations for Technology Import Contracts would be followed as Candore is not bound in any international trade treaty like Contract of International Sales of Goods (CISG) moreover even CISG would not have been applicable in such situation of patent and intellectual property law (Graham Matthew, Sep 2005).

Forum selection options were Binding or non-binding Arbitrations, Candorean courts or U.S. courts. Out of all these options Binding Arbitratory was best in the sense that it has the potential to solve the dispute quick, less costly and neutrally and in meanwhile the companies can carry their business normally where as courts would had been time consuming, costly and affect goodwill of both companies greatly (Graham Matthew, Sep 2005).

Although Cad Mex Pharma has its patent rights reserved under protection act of Trade Related International Property Rights (TRIPs) for 20 years ("Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights") but TRIPs also allow government to enforce compulsory licensing under health emergency (World Trade Organization: "Compulsory Licensing of Pharmace"). Now choice of law humbug anything against Candorean government and the TRIPs health emergency clause will affix more political pressure on Cad Mex Pharma. So if Cad Mex Pharma takes legal action that could result into Gentura's bankruptcy via employing binding arbitrator and otherwise Cad Mex Pharma can take no legal action and demand marketing rights in another drug. Former option is not recommended as it leads to loose- loose situation and relations with Candorean government would be blemished and as per latter option unwillingness has been witness from Gentura side (Graham Matthew, Sep 2005). Leaving behind only option of claiming compensation which could steer clear of expensive law suit and even keep the company out of looking into the feasibility of marketing share option of any other drug thus saving time, money and energy of both the companies. This option is also viable as viral epidemic situation is prevalent in the country so ethically the company should show sensitivity toward social cause and welfare.