MPA Business Services · since 1973
Pharmaceutical patent, SPC,
pricing and licensing intelligence
Search patent expiries, exclusivity dates, licences and medicine prices in one place, with specialist help to interpret the results.
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- Since 1973
- 32 countries
- 6 datasets
- Generics, traders, buyers, originators, legal, consultancies
What MPA helps you decide
Is your product’s loss of exclusivity approaching? Check the position of any product before you source, launch, license or litigate.
When exclusivity ends
Patent, supplementary protection certificate (SPC) and paediatric extension expiries, country by country, so you know when generic entry becomes possible and how long a branded parallel import opportunity lasts.
Assess sourcing and launch opportunities
Licences, holders and first EU marketing authorisation dates, the basis of data and marketing exclusivity, checked against the official registers.
Compare published list prices
Published national list prices across European markets, at presentation level, for sourcing and pricing decisions.
The dates that matter
Understand the dates behind loss of exclusivity
Patent expiry is one part of the picture. A supplementary protection certificate, a paediatric extension and regulatory data and marketing exclusivity may also affect the assessment, and each is granted or calculated nationally, so the position can differ by country.
The datasets behind itHow it works
Search, review, interpret
MPA Search is a subscription web application: every dataset your company subscribes to behind one search, online, with nothing to install. Access is by named user, with datasets and countries set for your company.
- 1
Search
A substance, product, company or reference number, or a whole list of products pasted in at once.
- 2
Review
Results from each dataset side by side, with the dates, countries and source references you need.
- 3
Interpret
Unsure what a result means for your enquiry? Ask. Help with interpretation is part of every subscription.
Patents & SPCs
Major product patents, SPCs and paediatric extensions for products on the European market.
Patent and SPC registers
EU first marketing authorisations
The dates that exclusivity periods run from.
EMA and the Union Register
Product licences
National marketing authorisations across the UK and Europe.
National licensing authorities
Parallel import licences
Licences and importers under national parallel importation schemes.
National licensing authorities
Prices
Published national list prices, market by market.
National price lists
NHS prescribing data
Volumes, items and list-price value for every medicine prescribed in the community and used in hospitals in England, with trends and shares.
NHSBSA prescribing and hospital medicines data
Patent & SPC coverage
32 countries
Every EU member state plus the UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, searchable one country at a time or by preset, such as the Big 6 markets.
Why rely on it
Since
1973
Pharmaceutical data and intelligence for small generics and pharma companies, pan-global industry players, trade associations and government bodies.
About MPA- companies and organisations served
- 250+
- companies and organisations served
- countries for patents and SPCs
- 32
- countries for patents and SPCs
- datasets behind one search
- 6
- datasets behind one search
Traceable to the source
MPA takes the official sources: national and European patent and SPC registers, the national licensing authorities, European Medicines Agency publications and first-authorisation records. Every record keeps its reference number, so it can be traced back to the register it came from.
What is included
With every subscription
- Help understanding the data supplied
- Its relevance to your enquiry
- At no extra charge
Ask about a date, a ruling or a register entry and the answer comes from the people who compiled the data, by email or phone, from the day you subscribe.
Clients
Who uses MPA Search
Generics and biosimilar companies, originators, buyers, parallel traders and wholesalers, legal teams and consultancies, since 1973. See how MPA works for teams like yours.
“Having used MPA over many years it has formed a key part of our business planning process. The data provided allows my team to make product identification clearly targeted.”
“An invaluable component of our marketing and corporate decision-making strategic planning processes.”
“We have always found the service offered to be helpful and efficient.”
From Resources
Plain answers on patents, exclusivity and prices
Case notes, explainers and guides written for the people who source, launch and buy medicines, each sourced to the register or judgment behind it.
- Latest case noteDelfarmaThe Court of Justice (Third Chamber, 25 November 2021, C-488/20) ruled that Articles 34 and 36 TFEU preclude national legislation under which a parallel import licence for a medicinal product expires automatically one year after the expiry of the reference marketing authorisation, without an examination of whether there is any risk to the health and life of humans; the exemption of parallel importers from the obligation to submit periodic safety reports is not a ground that can by itself justify such a decision.4 November 2026 · 4 min read
- ExplainersThe Bolar exemptionThe Bolar exemption lets a generic or biosimilar run the studies and trials for its marketing authorisation while the originator's patent or SPC is in force, so that it is approved and waiting on expiry day. Where the name comes from, what Article 10(6) actually says, how the UK and Germany went wider, the two things it does not cover (commercial stock and the pricing step), who may supply the active ingredient, and the rewrite in the EU pharmaceutical package.4 November 2026 · 6 min read
- ExplainersThe sunset clauseSince 2005 a marketing authorisation in the EU and the UK lapses if the product is not placed on the market within three years of grant, or disappears from the market for three consecutive years. One pack of one presentation keeps it alive, exemptions are possible, and the hard question is when the clock starts for a generic authorised years before the patent expires: the EMA and the MHRA say when it can lawfully be sold, Spain says from grant. What the rule says, how the agencies apply it, and what replaces it in the pharmaceutical package.4 November 2026 · 6 min read
- ExplainersFull, generic, hybrid, biosimilar, well-established use, fixed combination, informed consentEvery application for a marketing authorisation in the EU and the UK is made under one legal basis: a full dossier under Article 8(3), or one of the abridged routes in Articles 10 to 10c of the Directive and their UK equivalents in the Human Medicines Regulations. The basis says what data the applicant filed, which exclusivity clock the product ran against, whether it can serve as a reference product for others, and whether it is the same medicine as the brand or merely equivalent to it. The seven bases, side by side, with what each means for the commercial reader.2 November 2026 · 6 min read
See MPA Search in action
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