Joel Beevers, Michael Pears and Stephanie Pilkington explore the practical impact of recent CJEU case law in Royalty Pharma (C-650/17) and Teva v Gilead (C-121/17) on what constitutes ‘protection’ of active ingredients by the basic patent in the context of SPCs; how patent specifications can be optimised for this purpose; and how it can influence patent filing strategies.
They also consider the current state of play for obtaining SPCs for previously authorised active ingredients in view of the recent CJEU judgements in Abraxis (C-443/17) and Santen (C-673/18), and what options possibly still remain open to maximise exclusivity.
