Government tables amendment to attract drug research back to the UK

The UK government is moving ahead with plans to amend legislation to attract drug research back to the UK. If the changes go ahead, they will remove risks of patent infringement claims when carrying out clinical and other experimental trials of new drugs, according to Withers & Rogers – one of the UK’s leading firms of patent and trade mark attorneys.

The Legislative Reform (Patents) Order 2014 was tabled in Parliament last week (May 6) and is backed by an existing European Union directive, which had been applied in a restricted manner in the UK. This proposed amendment will significantly broaden the exemption that applies under current UK legislation when testing medicinal products and make the position at least as generous as that in some other parts of the EU.

The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has been calling for patent law to be changed for some time and in February 2013 the government confirmed that action was needed to “make the UK a more attractive location for research and development, supporting growth and innovation.”