The changing intellectual property (IP) landscape for pharmaceuticals has been debated by biosimilars and generic drug makers for a number of years. The Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC) manufacturing waiver, which will put an end to the legal requirement to delocalise pharmaceutical production outside of Europe has been lauded as a positive step for competition and security of supply of medicines at the conference.

There are still concerns that remain unanswered for some, particularly  with variables such as the patent linkage process, which continues to be a barrier to competition and timely access to generic and biosimilar medicines in several EU member states despite the clear decision 10 years ago to ban this anti-competitive practice. There have also been questions as to why the European patent system has failed to address documented problems with patent quality in relation to the pharmaceutical sector. Failing to address this issue undermines the credibility of the system and risks delaying access to medicines.