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VIII - Pharmaceutical Patents and Evergreening

from Part I - Science, Technology and Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2023

By
Hazel V. J. Moir
Edited by
Enrico Bonadio  and
Patrick Goold
Enrico Bonadio
Affiliation:
City, University of London
Patrick Goold
Affiliation:
City, University of London
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Summary

The grant of a patent for a genuinely new chemical entity (NCE) provides for 20 to 25 years protection from generic competition, allowing the patent owner to set prices to recoup the cost of the invention. Evergreening is a strategy by which patent owners extend the life of a patent monopoly, surrounding an original inventive patent with numerous additional patents for modifications or variations to the original invention (secondary patents). The sub-set of secondary patents owned by the originator company are known as ‘evergreening patents’, that is, patents designed to further delay generic entry to the market. Only a small number of evergreening patents achieve this effect. Numerous articles on pharmaceutical marketing consider such patenting an important part of ‘lifecycle management’, ensuring continuing high profits from the original invention are kept ‘evergreen’.

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The Cambridge Handbook of Investment-Driven Intellectual Property , pp. 133 - 152
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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