Patent attorneys and legal teams
You can read a register. What takes time is reading thirty-two of them, keeping the result current, and linking each patent to the authorisations and licences that depend on it. MPA does that work and keeps the reference to the original entry on every record.
The questions you face
What is the first EU authorisation date for this product, and which SPC terms and expiry dates follow from it in each country?
Which authorisations and licences exist for the product and its generics, held by whom, and since when?
Has the SPC in this country been corrected, lapsed or challenged, and does the register agree with the calculation?
How does the position in one country compare with the rest of Europe, for an opinion or a filing strategy?
How MPA helps
The official data, kept current, with the experience to read it. We have done this since 1973.
Thirty-two registers in one place
Patents, SPCs and paediatric extensions by country with status and register references, maintained as the registers change.
The regulatory facts beside them
First EU authorisation dates, UK and European licences and parallel import licences, so the regulatory basis of an SPC or an argument is to hand.
Traceable
Every record keeps the reference to the original register entry, so what you cite can be checked at source.
What to read first
All resources- ExplainersSupplementary protection certificatesSPCs add up to five years to a pharmaceutical patent. The rule that sets the exact term is short, but the inputs are not, and the answer differs by country. A plain walk-through with worked examples, and what to check before relying on an SPC date.
- ExplainersWhy some SPC expiry dates moved by a few daysSince the Court of Justice's 2015 Seattle Genetics ruling, the SPC term for a centrally authorised product is counted from the day the holder was notified of the Commission's decision, not the decision itself. The difference is days, every SPC on that authorisation moves by them, and the registers did not all correct themselves. How the rule works, what Incyte added, and how to check.
- GlossaryWhat the fields in a patent or SPC record meanA patent register entry is a dozen dates and codes, and only two of them decide when a product opens up. Each field defined plainly, with what it is used for commercially, the status words that mean the right has gone, and the SPC fields that sit alongside.
- GlossaryThe numbers on a patent documentEvery patent and SPC document carries small bracketed numbers next to its data: (22) is the filing date, (30) the priority, (84) the designated states, (92) to (97) the SPC authorisation details. They are the same in every country and language. The full list, with the ones that matter for exclusivity dates marked.
- Case notesCombination-product SPCsA combination of two active substances is a product in its own right and may have its own SPC, but only if the combination falls under the invention of the basic patent; it is not enough that the patent names it. The ruling leaves combination SPCs easier to attack than the single-substance SPCs they sit beside.
- GlossaryCountry codes and the registers behind themThe two-letter codes on patent documents, licence numbers and price lists, for every country MPA covers: EU or not, which office grants patents and SPCs, which agency licenses medicines, which currency the prices are in, and the special codes (EP, WO, EU, XI) that are not countries at all.
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