The European Parliament approved this proposal for a regulation subject to the following amendments: it added three recitals aimed at emphasising that:
- research on pharmaceutical products contributed to the improvement in the production and procurement of food of good quality at affordable prices;
- competitiveness in this sector required a level of protection for innovation which was equivalent to that granted to medicinal products by Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92 concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products;
- the real objective of this certificate was to place European industry on the same competitive footing as its American and Japanese counterparts.
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