Industrial property,Patents

The concept of “active ingredient”: Insights from the Halozyme referral (C-456/24)

By Natali Goginashvili at Associate, HOYNG ROKH MONEGIER, Paris Background The applicant, Halozyme Inc, specializes in drug delivery technologies for emerging and established therapies. Its core technology ENHANZE® is based on recombinant human hyaluronidase ("rHuPH20"), which is a drug delivery enzyme that locally breaks down human hyaluronic acid, and when co-formulated with other drugs, facilitates their subcutaneous delivery after injection. Halozyme has partnered for ENHANZE® with multiple pharmaceutical companies, including Roche who markets a combination of trastuzumab and rHuPH20 branded as Herceptin®. Trastuzumab is a known active ingredient, which is a monoclonal antibody widely used in the treatment of breast...
Industrial property

Paris Court of Appeal Overturns the French Patent Office decision to refuse the grant of Two SPC Applications Filed by...

By Marie-Ange Pozzo di Borgo and Emilia Grenier, Associates at Gide Loyrette Nouel. In two rulings issued on 16 May 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal annulled decisions by the French Patent Office (INPI) refusing to grant supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) to Janssen Pharmaceutica NV. These are interesting decisions as they relate to combinations of active ingredients and are the first decisions implementing the recent Teva v. MSD CJEU decision in France. The SPC applications concerned the following combinations of active ingredients: First SPC: tenofovir alafenamide fumarate, emtricitabine, rilpivirine hydrochloride ; Second SPC: tenofovir alafenamide fumarate, rilpivirine hydrochloride. Seized with...