Servier – Prohibited patent settlements

For the magazine Berichten Industriële Eigendom (Messages Intellectual Property), Gaëlle Béquet wrote an annotation to the judgments of the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 12 December 2018 between Servier and Krka on the one hand, and the European Commission on the other hand (Cases T-684/14 and T-691/14). The case took place in the context of so-called pay-for-delay agreements whereby Servier, who had patents for a certain medicine, as part of patent settlements paid (indirectly) generic producers to enter the market at a later moment. In this way, Servier could keep the prices of its medicines high. This annotation addresses the question of what agreements between originator and generic are allowed. Click here to read the annotation.