Overview

Following on from its wide-ranging inquiry in the pharmaceutical sector, the Commission has now published the results of its first monitoring exercise of patent settlement agreements between originator companies and generics producers.

The results show a decline in those agreements the Commission considers to be problematic, but provides little guidance to companies on how best to structure settlement agreements while still respecting competition law rules.

Meanwhile, the General Court has handed down its judgment in the AstraZeneca case, confirming the Commission’s finding that the company had abused its dominant position by making misleading representations to extend the duration of its patent protection and by misusing national marketing rules in order to delay or prevent market entry for generic products and parallel traders.

The ruling raises further uncertainties for dominant companies regarding the exercise of their intellectual property rights and marketing strategies.

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