This document is an excerpt from the EUR-Lex website
Document 62022CN0149
Case C-149/22: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Court (Ireland) made on 2 March 2022 — Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp v Clonmel Healthcare Limited
Case C-149/22: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Court (Ireland) made on 2 March 2022 — Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp v Clonmel Healthcare Limited
Case C-149/22: Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Court (Ireland) made on 2 March 2022 — Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp v Clonmel Healthcare Limited
OJ C 191, 10.5.2022, p. 21–22
(BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, HR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV)
OJ C 191, 10.5.2022, p. 17–18
(GA)
10.5.2022 |
EN |
Official Journal of the European Union |
C 191/21 |
Reference for a preliminary ruling from the Supreme Court (Ireland) made on 2 March 2022 — Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp v Clonmel Healthcare Limited
(Case C-149/22)
(2022/C 191/27)
Language of the case: English
Referring court
Supreme Court
Parties to the main proceedings
Plaintiff: Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp
Defendant: Clonmel Healthcare Limited
Questions referred
1. |
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2. |
Where, as in this case, the patent is for a particular drug, ezetimibe, and the claims in the patent teach that the application in human medicine may be for the use of that drug alone or in combination with another drug, here, simvastatin, a drug in the public domain, can an SPC be granted under Article 3(a) of the Regulation only for a product comprising ezetimibe, a monotherapy, or can an SPC also be granted for any or all of the combination products identified in the claims in the patent? |
3. |
Where a monotherapy, drug A, in this case ezetimibe, is granted an SPC, or any combination therapy is first granted an SPC for drugs A and B as a combination therapy, which are part of the claims in the patent, though only drug A is itself novel and thus patented, with other drugs being already known or in the public domain; is the grant of an SPC limited to the first marketing of either that monotherapy of drug A or that first combination therapy granted an SPC, A+B, so that, following that first grant, there cannot be a second or third grant of an SPC for the monotherapy or any combination therapy apart from that first combination granted an SPC? |
4. |
If the claims of a patent cover both a single novel molecule and a combination of that molecule with an existing and known drug, perhaps in the public domain, or several such claims for a combination, does Article 3(c) of the Regulation limit the grant of an SPC;
And if any of the above, why? |
(1) Regulation (EC) No 469/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 May 2009 concerning the supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (OJ 2009, L 152, p. 1).