Another EC tender on SPCs - this time on the economic impact

Via this post on the IPKat comes news of a recently published tender entitled "Study on the economic impact of supplementary protection certificates, pharmaceutical incentives and rewards in Europe." This study will complement the ongoing legal study on SPCs (reported on the SPC Blog here).

According to the press release:

"The study will provide an economic evaluation of the incentives and rewards for pharmaceutical innovation in Europe, and its functioning within the Internal Market. 

The study will in particular analyse the effects of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) for pharmaceutical uses (human and veterinary), and plant protection, data protection and market exclusivity for medicinal products for human use.

Evidence on the overall impact on availability and accessibility of pharmaceutical care for patients and the pressure on health systems across the European Union will be examined. The evidence and analysis provided by this study will hence support the policy making in those areas."

More detailed information on the tender can be obtained in the technical specifications, here. The deadline to apply is 8 February 2017.

Re-launch of the European Commission's tender for a Study on legal aspects of SPCs in the EU

The European Commission's initial tender for a "Study on legal aspects of supplementary protection certificates in the EU" has had to be re-launched due to a very limited number of bids:  the new tender has a closing date of 27 July 2016. 

The study's purpose is stated as follows:

The contracted study shall evaluate whether a new European SPC title, with the current or broader scope within the field of pharmaceutical and plant protection products, with improved provisions, is required to meet the requirements of current and expected innovative market developments in the EU.

With this primary purpose, the study shall evaluate the current SPC framework in terms of its legal efficiency in meeting its stated objectives given the development of directly affected and related product markets.

It shall also suggest whether the existing SPC rules need to be recalibrated given identified limitations.

The results could serve as a basis for an impact assessment for a future proposal by the Commission to recalibrate the existing EU SPC rules.

Details of the tender can be found here.