Another article, another case note: SPCs loom large in latest BioSLR

The just-published issue 5 of volume 14 of Lawtext Publishing's Bio-science Law Review has two items that should be interest to the SPC enthusiast. It opens with an article, "Supplementary Protection Certificates for biologicals -- some guidance from Pharmaq v Intervet" by the Potter Clarkson LLP pair of John Miles and Michael Pears. According the abstract:

The Pharmaq v Intervet case [the EFTA Court ruling, here, discussed on this weblog here] considers, in the context of a salmon virus vaccine, the important issues of what types of marketing authorisations count for the purposes of determining whether a supplementary protection certificate (SPC) is available and what its duration is, and whether an SPC based on a particular authorised biological product can validly extend protection to an authorised variant of that product. Possible implications with respect to SPCs for human biological medicines are also discussed.

This is followed by a case analysis by Katie Hutchinson and Laura Reynolds (Bristows), "CJEU rules again on combination SPCs - Actavis v Boehringer". Explains the journal:

This comment considers the latest judgment from the CJEU on combination SPCs. It summarises earlier cases from the court in order to build up a picture of the position the CJEU is now taking.

Further details of the journal can be accessed here.

Recent developments: a new article from an old friend

"Recent developments in the area of supplementary protection certificates" is the title of a new article by our friend and reader Ulrich M. Gassner (Faculty of Law, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany). This 28-page piece appears in Pharmaceuticals Policy and Law 16 (2014) at pages 45 to 72 (DOI 10.3233/PPL-140375). According to the abstract:

"The purpose of this paper is to set out and discuss the recent jurisdictional developments in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) with respect to supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) including paediatric extensions. During the past five years the ECJ has been particularly active and has clarified a number of highly controversial legal ambiguities, such as the availability of negative term SPCs".

You can check out the contents of the issue in which this article appears here, where you will spot the names and contributions of quite a few of our friends and blog-readers.