The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday announced that agribuses are not allowed to use patented chemicals to create medicines that are not safe for humans.
The FDA said the ban was necessary to protect the public from the threat posed by the new crop of synthetic drugs that are often developed by small businesses in countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
The new rules are aimed at controlling the use of agribUSDA’s approved synthetic drugs.
The agency said the new rules will also help the agency identify new drugs and prevent them from being marketed to patients who have not yet received a doctor’s recommendation to try them.
Agribusys has also been accused of using patented chemicals in a handful of new drugs, including one approved by the FDA last year that was marketed as a possible vaccine.
“The AGM is a necessary step to protect patients from the threats posed by synthetic drugs, which are often the product of unregulated research,” the agency said in a statement.
AgribUSD’s AgBioChem subsidiary, which is owned by agribuseas parent company, Dow Chemical, has been the target of several lawsuits.
In November, the US Supreme Court ruled in a ruling that AgBio Chem could not sue Dow Chemical for patent infringement.
However, the company did sue the FDA in December for refusing to enforce the ban.