Canada’s Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union and its Member States heralds significant reform to many of Canada’s IP laws. As described in our a previous post, some of these changes will directly impact pharmaceutical patents in Canada.
In a series of orders in council, the Canadian government has now set September 21, 2017 as its implementation date for CETA.
For pharmaceutical patents, the most significant changes are:
- an overhaul of the Patented Medicines (Notice of Compliance) Regulations, which controls how generic drugs are granted market authorization; and
- new term patent extensions for pharmaceutical patents, known as “Certificates of Supplementary Protection”, to compensate for regulatory delays during new drug approvals.
Further information on these changes are provided in our article published in Canadian Lawyer InHouse Magazine.
The above changes, among others, will be in effect in Canada as of September 21, 2017.
If you would like to know more about how these changes will impact your pharmaceutical patent portfolio, please feel free to contact one of our professionals .
Authors: Ken Ma and Andrew Montague (former associate)
This article is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice.