Patent filing strategies for pharmaceuticals in Europe

Paying for On-Patent Pharmaceuticals

In this article we propose a new approach to pricing for patent-protected (on-patent) pharmaceuticals. We describe and define limit pricing as a method for drug companies to maximize revenue for their investment by offering budget-neutral pricing to encourage early adoption by payers. Under this approach, payers are incentivized to adopt innovative but expensive drugs more quickly if drug compa...

Is Europe a Laggard in Pharmaceuticals? R&D Joint Ventures, Patent Quality and R&D Productivity

This paper examines the idea that the USA has outshined Europe in the race for new medicines as a result of a flight of business R&D expenditure to the USA. It adopts a methodology that accounts for R&D price inflation, considers the role of both ‘performed’ R&D and ‘extra-mural’ R&D, and focuses on R&D productivity and patent quality as key indicators of innovation. The study provides three ne...

Proposed trade agreement could increase patent protection for pharmaceuticals.

Patent-eligibility of Plants in Europe

The patent-eligibility of plants has been unsettled at the European Patent Office for some 20 years. Article 53(b) EPC prohibits the patenting of plant varieties and essentially biological processes for the production of plants. When other requirements such as novelty and inventive step are met, this causes few problems for transgenic plants modified by biotechnological methods, but it has been...

Towards a Patent Reform in Europe

This article analyses the advantages and disadvantages of the different patent systems that coexist in Europe and examines the recently launched proposal for a European Council Regulation on the Community patent in light of the shortcoming of the existing systems. The European Commission has sought the coexistent of the Community, European and national patent systems. This option does not elimi...