CJEU’s Advocate General expounds on the availability of SPCs where the basic patent claims a functionally defined active ingredient or a Markush formula in the joined cases Royalty Pharma (C-650/17) and Sandoz v. Searle (C-114/18)
In the field of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) in the European Union, the majority of all CJEU referrals resolved to date have dealt with the interpretation of the – presumably simple – condition that an SPC can only be granted for an active ingredient (or a combination of active ingredients) that is “protected” by the…