Supplementary protection certificate provisions for pharmaceutical and biotechnological products in europe: An era after Medeva and Georgetown decisions

The Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) is a valuable intellectual property which allows its holder to maintain monopoly in the European Economic Area. The recent rulings by Court of Justice for Europe have considerably changed the understanding of the Article 3 of Regulation No 469/2009 which governs SPC provisions. The changes relating to the pharmaceutical and biotechnological products are of considerable importance for the innovator as well as generic companies. This article is an attempt to analyse the rulings involving pharmaceutical products before and after the Medeva and Georgetown cases and rulings. These decisions have an impact on the future strategies to be adopted by the innovator as well as generic pharmaceutical companies to be successful in European market, which is the second largest market in the world.