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We would like to share with you a new research synthesis on patentability criteria in the pharmaceutical sector. It can be accessed at https://www.knowledgeportalia.org/patentability-criteria

The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS Agreement) sets out basic patentability criteria, but countries have policy space to decide how these criteria are defined and applied at the national level, an important “TRIPS flexibility” that can be used to balance private and public interests.

Governments have adopted different practices with respect to patentability criteria, mostly addressing “secondary” patents of already known products.

There are some studies investigating the effectiveness of such practices especially in Argentina, Brazil and India, highlighting what has worked and not worked and how they can be improved. There is a need for more comparative and empirical studies across different countries and how patentability criteria are applied to other health products beyond drugs.

The research syntheses are a resource of the Knowledge Portal on Innovation and Access, a project of the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of Geneva, and aim to provide concise, comprehensive overviews of the current state of research on a specific topic. There are currently 20 topics available under 3 themes: pricing, intellectual property and innovation. A list of all topics is available at https://www.knowledgeportalia.org

As always, we value your comments and feedback through the contribution form available at the website or by email at globalhealthresearch@graduateinstitute.ch.