As
As pharmaceutical drug costs attract increasing media attention
For decades, courts have construed the transitional phrase “consisting essentially of” to mean that the scope of a claim is limited to the specified materials or steps “and those that do not materially affect the basic and novel characteristic(s)” of the claimed invention. In re Herz, 537 F.2d 549, 551-52, 190 USPQ 461, 463 (CCPA
On July 11, 2019, more than 110 House Democrats wrote a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer expressing strong opposition to provisions in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade agreement, including the provision setting a minimum of 10 years of marketing exclusivity for biologic drugs.
As discussed here, in the United States,
Canada implemented its patent term extension program, the Certificate of Supplementary Protection (CSP) framework, on September 21, 2017. The CSP regime is beneficial to qualifying pharmaceutical product developers because it can add up to two additional years of patent protection. Notably, CSP is not as beneficial as other major jurisdictions, which generally allow up to
As pharmaceutical drug costs attract increasing media attention
On March 7, 2019, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) released updated draft guidance announcing that it will create special names for biosimilar products to distinguish them from previously approved biologic products. Specifically, the guidance explains that:
On November 5, 2018, twenty-nine organizations representing various groups including insurance companies, patient and consumer advocacy groups, unions, and retirees, submitted a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to raise serious concerns that the recently renegotiated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – now proposed to be called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free