COMMISSION FINDS PATENT ABUSE FALLS WITHIN ART.82

The European Commission has found AstraZeneca guilty of abusing its dominant position on the market for proton pump inhibitors by misusing the patent system. AZ provided false information to the patent offices of a number of EU Member States which led to AZ gaining extended patent protection for Losec through supplementary protection certificates. The presence of the SPCs meant that the patent offices did not examine whether Losce was innovative, as they would normally be obliged to do in a patent claim. Once AZ had this extended patent protection, it used it anticompetitively in order to blocking or delay market access for generic versions of Losec. AZ also used its dominant position in order to prevent parallel importers from importing the drug.

The IPKat thinks that the relationship between antitrust and IP is poorly understood. He waits to see what IP lawyers will make of this decision.

Proton pump inhibitors here