Plant SPC from earlier veterinary SPC? Yes, it can be done

"Can you get a plant SPC where there is an earlier veterinary SPC?" That's the question posed by James Horgan (Merck & Co., Inc. The answer, which he thoughtfully provides for us, is "Yes, say the Hungarians". The proof of this proposition may be found in a decision of the Metropolitan Court of 12 January 2012.

James has sent us a handy English translation from Danubia, which represented Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. in the application. The patent, with a filing date of 2 April 1992, was for “Stable BLA/BLB salts of 4”-deoxy-4”-epi-methylamino avermectin”. To the SPC application there was attached, in addition to the basic patent on which the application was based, the first authorisation to place a composition called Slice on the market in the Community as a veterinary product (Vm00201/4153, United Kingdom, January 14, 2000); as a product the petitioner named an insecticide called Affirm (active ingredient: emamectin benzoate). To read what happened next, click here for the 8-page decision.