Although Abbott could probably afford the loss of the Brazilian revenues (0.5% of its total sales) if a compulsory licence were issued, industry representatives and patent-rights advocates fear the precedent-setting effect of such a move.
An interesting precedent will be provided by the outcome of a pending Nintendo patent application regarding methods for MMOG players to collectively alter a virtual environment without directly interacting with each other. (In filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office during 2012, Nintendo has substantially narrowed the claims with respect to those in the original 2010 application.) Nintendo, of course, is a game company, not an individual player.
The orphan drug act only gives them eight years of exclusivity, but it does set a precedent for giving companies an extension of their monopoly that is not based on patent protection.