Second medical use

Subscribe to Second medical use via RSS

On 14 February 2019, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) delivered its judgment in Case C-423/17 Netherlands v Warner-Lambert Company, finding in line with the opinion of Advocate General Kokott issued on 4 October 2018, that “carving-out” indications or dosage forms covered by the patent right of a third party, leading to a skinny label for the product, is a request to limit the marketing authorisation for the generic medicinal product. In practice, this prevents the competent authorities from publishing a complete SmPC, showing all indications associated with the innovator product, on their website.

Today’s judgment will be welcomed by innovative companies seeking to ensure the effectiveness of their second medical use patents.Continue Reading CJEU decision on scope of skinny labels

On 14 November, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment on the validity and infringement of the second medical use patent that protected Pfizer’s Lyrica® (pregabalin) for the treatment of various types of pain. In Warner-Lambert Company LLC v Generics (UK) Ltd (t/a Mylan) & Anor [2018] UKSC 56, the Court decided that the patent held by Warner-Lambert (a company in the Pfizer group) was invalid for insufficiency, because it did not render it plausible that pregabalin would be effective to treat all of the claimed types of pain. The Court also held that, had the claims been valid, they would not have been infringed by a “skinny label” generic version of pregabalin that had the protected indications carved out. However, the five judges of the Court were not in agreement on several key points.
Continue Reading UK Supreme Court rules on validity and infringement of second medical use patents