Malaysia's drug regulators have provisions in place to prevent drug manufacturers from obtaining patent extensions for making frivilous changes to the drug, said Mahsa University pro-chancellor Dr Ismail Merican.

“No, I have been assured by the Drug Control Authority (DCA) that it is difficult for them to do that. I know that is one of the most contentious issues - where you tweak here, tweak there; change this, change that, and then you receive a patent.

“Because of the clause that they (DCA) have right now, it is not possible for them to do that. The evergreening and the overhanging is not quite possible,” he said, when asked at the sidelines of a roundtable dicussion on TPPA in Kuala Lumpur today.