Experts in Pharma Extensions (SPCs & PTEs) and Regulatory Exclusivity

Mewburn Ellis has unparalleled experience with SPCs and other Patent Term Extensions (PTEs). We handled the UK’s first SPC application for leuprorelin back in 1993 and we’ve been in the top three firms for SPC filings in recent years, supporting some of the biggest multinational pharma firms worldwide.

Our Speciality Pharma Team regularly supports large and small clients with their extensions strategies and filings. Before filing SPC applications for a medicinal product there should often be a phase of careful strategic analysis to inform the final key decisions about which patent to extend in each country. To conduct this assessment properly, there often needs to be a detailed appreciation of the regulatory picture surrounding a given drug product, and how it might evolve in the future, to be sure of reaching the right decisions. Specialist understanding is important at this stage to avoid missing critical details and going down the wrong path on such a commercially important decision.

Our Speciality Pharma team includes experienced IP counsel who previously specialised in this area while working in-house for a global pharmaceutical company and our team regularly supports clients with such analysis, before progressing to the SPC and PTE filings themselves.

In other situations, our team has assisted with evaluations and due diligences, to understand the likely timelines of exclusivity around a medicinal product in key countries towards a commercial assessment of the asset.

We encourage pharma and life science companies to work with us from an early stage in order that significant opportunities are not missed in maximising extensions and the overall value of a new medicinal product.

Mewburn Ellis have been involved with key aspects of over 1000 SPCs/PTEs for our clients and we’re well-placed to support you in this specialist area of great commercial importance.

Read our Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs) & Patent Term Extensions (PTEs) law and practice guide.

Read more about our expertise in the Pharma & Biologics and Speciality Pharma fields.

Latest News & Insights

UPC Weekly - Playing the longer game – patentee wins on the merits after a failed PI

UPC Weekly - Playing the longer game – patentee wins on the merits after a failed PI

by Matthew Naylor

2025 Week 23 Sometimes you need to know when to take a step back from enforcing your patent, and regroup, before pressing on. In March 2024, Tiroler Rohre filed an application for a preliminary ...

UPC Weekly - Using parallel UPC and EPO proceedings as a strategic tool

UPC Weekly - Using parallel UPC and EPO proceedings as a strategic tool

by Lucy Coe

2025 Week 22 As we enter the third year of the UPC, we are seeing more and more parallel UPC proceedings and EPO oppositions. Although UPC decisions are not formally legally binding on the EPO, both ...

UPC Weekly - Juicer patent: no additives but no invention

UPC Weekly - Juicer patent: no additives but no invention

by Matthew Naylor

2025 Week 21 In April 2024, Korean kitchen appliance firm Hurom launched patent infringement proceedings against NUC Electronics and Warmcook for infringement of two patents for juicers: EP 2028981 ...

The Beginning of a New Age of Painkillers

The Beginning of a New Age of Painkillers

by Jessica Pemberton

In January 2025, the US Food and Drug administration approved suzetrigine (Journavx), the first of a new class of non-opioid analgesics, for the treatment of acute pain. This approval marks the first ...

UPC Weekly - UPC preliminary injunction proceedings – a big stick even if denied?

UPC Weekly - UPC preliminary injunction proceedings – a big stick even if denied?

by Matthew Naylor

2025 Week 19 Your patent is valid and in force. The alleged infringement falls squarely inside the scope of the claims. You have come to the UPC fast enough to meet the urgency requirements. When the ...

Biohaven secures $600M investment to advance life-changing therapies, including for spinocerebellar ataxia

Biohaven secures $600M investment to advance life-changing therapies, including for spinocerebellar ataxia

by Andrew Pitts

We extend a big congratulations to our client, Biohaven Ltd., on recently entering into an agreement with Oberland Capital Management LLC for an investment of up to $600 million, of which $250 ...

SPC Report Mock-Up v2-compressed

Special Report

Pharma and Life Sciences Patent Extensions in Europe

Having compiled and analysed real-world data, this Special Report sets out to provide valuable insights into the following questions that may face decision-makers handling SPC protection for a new drug:

  1. What do the headline SPC statistics tell us?
  2. How to approach the decision of which patent to extend?
  3. What forms of medical technology are being protected by SPCs?
  4. What SPC periods are typically obtained?
  5. How do SPC periods vary with technology type?
  6. How do SPC periods overlay with regulatory protection?
  7. What commercial value can arise from SPCs?