Intellectual property, or IP, spurs biopharmaceutical innovation. IP It attracts investments, encourages the sharing of expertise and helps to turn ideas into medicines. The journey to the breakthroughs and cures of tomorrow is long, risky and costly. IP incentivizes embarking on that journey. Europe’s IP framework for medicines balances reward for innovation with providing a pathway for generic competition. As well as rewarding innovation, IP facilitates competition. That helps patients to access the healthcare they need at affordable prices.

IP comes in different forms - patents, SPCs and RDP. The European Commission wants to reduce the basic period of RDP in a revision of the General Pharmaceutical Legislation. The European Parliament wants to do the same, although by less time. Governments at the Council of the EU will have their say next. We urge them to keep the duration of baseline RDP at eight years. Let’s future-proof the European environment for innovation in medicines.