Journal article
EVIDENCE OF ‘EVERGREENING’ IN SECONDARY PATENTING OF BLOCKBUSTER DRUGS
AF Christie, C Dent, DM Studdert
Melbourne University Law Review | MELBOURNE UNIV LAW REVIEW ASSOC | Published : 2021
Abstract
Secondary patents associated with blockbuster drugs are granted for follow-on innovations relating to the active pharmaceutical ingredient (‘API’) of the drug. Our analysis of all secondary patents for 13 top-selling drugs in Australia shows that, while the majority of follow-on innovations are made by entities other than the originator of the drug, the innovations with the highest private value are undertaken by the drug’s originator and concern a delivery mechanism or an alternative formulation for the API. Since that is the type of follow-on innovation most commonly undertaken by drug originators, and considered most likely to result in a de facto extension of marketplace monopoly over th..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
Chair of Intellectual Property, Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne..e assistance of Lachlan Wilson and Simon Walter to this study's data generation and data analysis, respectively, is gratefully acknowledged. This research was funded by the Australian Research Council, as Discovery Project DP0987570, Chief Investigators: AF Christie, DM Studdert, P McIntyre and C Dent. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.