Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of different starting dates for regulatory data protection and Supplementary Protection Certificates as incentives for innovative medicines on (a) patient access to innovative medicines and (b) the UK’s competitiveness as a destination for investment in life sciences.
Rules on data exclusivity and Supplementary Protection Certificates fulfil two separate functions within the United Kingdom’s intellectual property regime for medicines. These arrangements therefore necessarily have differing start dates. As such, the Government has not made a direct assessment of the potential effect of different starting dates for regulatory data protection and Supplementary Protection Certificates.