LOGOLOGOLOGOLOGO
  • About us
    • What we do
    • Who we are
      • Governance
      • Staff
      • Vacancies
  • Members
    • EuropaBio Members
    • About Membership
  • How we work
    • Healthcare Biotechnology Council
      • Patient BioForum
      • Study – Impact of the EU’s General Pharmaceutical Legislation
    • Industrial Biotechnology Council
      • EFIB
      • Microorganisms
    • National Associations Council
    • SME Platform
    • Biomanufacturing Platform
      • Biotechnology in our Lives
  • Activities
    • 25 Years of Innovation
    • The EU Biotech Act
    • European Biotech Week
    • EU Projects
      • PRIMED Project
      • APROVALS Project
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events
  • Library
Become a member
✕

From Patent to Patient – The importance of IP rewards and incentives

28/10/2017
REPORT

From Patent to Patient - The importance of IP rewards and incentives

ABSTRACT: IP REWARDS AND INCENTIVES IN THE EU CONTEXT

The European Commission evaluation of IP rewards and incentives under EU pharmaceutical law followed the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO)24 Council conclusions under the Dutch Presidency in 2016 on the one hand, and ordinary reviews required in certain regulations on the other.

Among the changes to the European IP system understood to be under consideration by the European Commission is a manufacturing and export exemption to the Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs), which would allow generic manufacturers to manufacture medicines in the EU whilst the original product is still under the protection of SPCs, though they could only be sold to countries outside the region.

Generic medicine manufacturers argue that such a waiver would create jobs in Europe allowing the EU to better compete with India and China.

However, survey respondents indicated significant disagreement with this assumption. Most healthcare biotechnology developers and manufacturers said they believed it would lead to job losses in the sector and a rapid erosion of innovation investment.

Their views are supported by the findings of a recent study commissioned by among others, the US Chamber of Commerce25. The study suggests that a manufacturing and export exemption is likely to have a detrimental effect on the European research-based biopharmaceutical industry and is unlikely to provide a significant and sustained positive economic impact on the European generics industry.

The study finds that implementation of an EU wide SPC manufacturing and export exemption would potentially result in annual losses ranging between EUR 2.30 billion and up to EUR 4.61 billion to the global innovative biopharmaceutical industry, with approximately EUR 1.15 billion to EUR 1.96 billion of these attributed to the European innovative biopharmaceutical industry.

Translating these losses to current levels of biopharmaceutical sector employment and R&D investment the effect of the introduction of an EU wide SPC manufacturing and export exemption could be between 4,500-7,700 direct job losses (with an additional 19,000-32,000 indirect job losses) and a decrease of between EUR 215 million to EUR 364 million in R&D investment.

On the other hand, there was support from stakeholders for the idea of introducing unitary SPCs, in line with the unitary patent scheme, especially if it involved the establishment of a virtual body composed of SPC experts from national patent offices, as an authority to grant them.

Similar to a unitary patent, a single SPC application that is valid in all member states would simplify the complex terrain of intellectual property across Europe and would reduce internal time and resources.

The overwhelming majority response from the EuropaBio survey was that the current IP system should be preserved as it provides a balanced framework enabling medical innovation. “The industry is operating within a very fragile ecosystem,” said a survey respondent. “It is important the Commission at least maintains the status quo.”

Download the file below to read the full report.

From Patent to Patient - The importance of IP rewards and incentives


Download

2017_10_H_R_From-Patent-to-Patient-The-importance-of-IP-rewards-and-incentivesDownload
Share
Alexandra Simionca
Alexandra Simionca

Related posts

10/06/2025

EuropaBio Position on the EU Biotech Act: Prosperity, resilience and leadership for the European Union


Read more
10/06/2025

The EU economic and scientific future starts with the EU Biotech Act


Read more
05/06/2025

The GPL must include biotech & life science to unleash EU innovation


Read more

Important links

  • EuropaBio Position on the EU Biotech Act: Prosperity, resilience and leadership for the European Union
  • The EU economic and scientific future starts with the EU Biotech Act

Categories in our Newsroom

EBIO-white

EuropaBio represents corporate and associate members across sectors, plus national and regional biotechnology associations which, in turn, represent over 5000 biotech companies, 4600 out of them are SMEs.

Contact us

Extra links

Members
Staff
Privacy policy
Legal & cookies
Events
Newsroom

Become a member

Media pack

© 2025 Europabio. All Rights Reserved. Designed by EYAS
Become a member

Algal Omega 3

Algal Omega-3 is an innovative feed product for aquaculture. It reduces the impact on climate change by 30-40% compared to fish oil and saves 60 tons of wild fish for every ton of Algal Omega-3 used.

Cheese

Cheese is a vegetarian product thanks to biotechnology. Biotechnology is also essential to produce lactose- or cholesterol-free cheese, as well as alternative proteins.

Clothes

Clothes made from alternative fibres produced by microorganisms can be 8x stronger than steel, 100% recyclable, biodegradable and replace fossil-fuel based or resource-intensive textiles.

Vitamin B2

The biomanufacturing of Vitamin B2 led to the reduction of 75% of fossil raw materials and 50% operating costs, compared to the chemical process. Vitamin B2 is used in the food, feed or healthcare sectors.

Detergents

Enzymes and biosurfactancts are alternative ingredients that improve the performance of detergents, while leading to water and energy savings and reductions in CO2 emissions and water toxicity.

Insulin

Insulin is one of the most widely known biopharmaceutical. Biotechnology revolutionised its manufacturing process and led to the development of new types of insulin through r-DNA technology.