Brexit, Pharmaceuticals and SPCs

Author: James A. Stones
IP News

Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) can extend the 20 year term of patents relating to medicinal products by up to 5 years (or 5½ years in the case of paediatric medicines).  This is intended to compensate the developers of such products for the time taken to obtain authorisation to place them on the market.

However, due to the nature of the existing legal and regulatory framework, after the UK leaves the European Union, SPC protection may no longer be  available to UK-based companies developing these products unless they “set up shop” as it were in the EU or EEA.  The issues are discussed in detail in an article in the British Journal of Pharmacy, written by Jamie Fraser and James Stones of Beck Greener, which can be found here:

http://dx.doi.org/10.5920/bjpharm.2017.06

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