Latest News & Features
Big Pharma
There is a lack of judicial guidance in Europe on the issue of third party supplementary protection certificates (SPCs), otherwise known as “SPC squatting”, as Trevor Cook of WilmerHale explains. 12 May 2016
Americas
CRISPR is only part of the gene editing story, and by studying the patents associated with all of the various methods, a much clearer picture of the entire field can be generated, says Tony Trippe, senior patent analyst for Thomson Reuters. 5 May 2016
Africa
Ahead of the English Court of Appeal’s hearing in May in the Warner-Lambert case on second medical use patents, Charlotte Weekes and Tamsin Cornwell of Pinsent Masons examine some of the unanswered questions. 28 April 2016
Americas
Unlike in the EU, Canada does not have additional pharma patent protection to compensate for regulatory delays, but that looks set to change, as Shirley Liang, an IP lawyer in Canada, explains. 21 April 2016
Asia
The Indian government has invited public comments on draft regulatory guidelines for biosimilars, while patent law in this area has still to take shape. Sameer Sah, Nisha Austine and Jahnvi Shah of Khaitan & Co report. 14 April 2016
Americas
The BPCIA requires a biosimilar applicant to notify the reference product sponsor of its drug no later than 180 days before the first commercial marketing date. Darryl Woo, Erin Ator Thomson, Janice Ta and Wendy Wang of Vinson & Elkins report on some of the pressing issues in this area. 7 April 2016
Americas
In March, Merck unsuccessfully tried to invalidate a patent owned by Bristol-Myers Squibb covering metastatic skin cancer treatment. Ernest Linek of Banner & Witcoff reviews the arguments and the court’s ruling. 7 April 2016
Big Pharma
Owners of second medical use patents may need to think outside the box in terms of the relief they seek for infringement, says Katie Hutchinson of Bristows. 31 March 2016
Americas
No patent application directed to CRISPR has yet fallen foul of the EU’s Biotech Directive on the basis of the human embryo use exception, but the technology is still in its nascent stage. Ashley Roughton of Nabarro reports. 31 March 2016
Big Pharma
Despite a large body of EPO case law accepting second medical use claims that recite a novel technical effect, all eyes are on how courts in EPC member states will deal with infringement cases arising from such patents. Joachim Wachenfeld and Oswin Ridderbusch of Vossius & Partner report. 24 March 2016