CELEX: C2006/165/14
Language: en
Date: 2006-07-15 00:00:00
Title: Case C-431/04: Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of  4 May 2006  (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesgerichtshof (Germany)) — Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Patent law — Medicinal products — Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92 — Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products — Concept of  combination of active ingredients )

15.7.2006   
            
            
               EN
            
            
               Official Journal of the European Union
            
            
               C 165/8
            
         Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber) of 4 May 2006 (reference for a preliminary ruling from the Bundesgerichtshof (Germany)) — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
   (Case C-431/04) (1)
   
   (Patent law - Medicinal products - Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92 - Supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products - Concept of ‘combination of active ingredients’)
   (2006/C 165/14)
   Language of the case: German
   Referring court
   Bundesgerichtshof (Germany)
   Parties to the main proceedings
   
      Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
   Re:
   Reference for a preliminary ruling — Bundesgerichtshof — Interpretation of Article 1(b) of Council Regulation (EEC) No 1768/92 of 18 June 1992 concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products (OJ 1992 L 182, p. 1) — Concept of ‘combination of active ingredients of a medicinal product’ — Medicinal product composed of an active ingredient and an excipient, which constitutes a necessary form of administration of the active ingredient in order to avoid toxic effect
   Operative part of the judgment
   Article 1(b) of Council Regulation No 1768/92 of 18 June 1992 concerning the creation of a supplementary protection certificate for medicinal products, in the version resulting from the Act concerning the conditions of accession of the Republic of Austria, the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden and the adjustments to the Treaties on which the European Union is founded, must be interpreted so as not to include in the concept of ‘combination of active ingredients of a medicinal product’ a combination of two substances, only one of which has therapeutic effects of its own for a specific indication, the other rendering possible a pharmaceutical form of the medicinal product which is necessary for the therapeutic efficacy of the first substance for that indication.
   
      (1)  OJ C 300, 4.12.2004.