Patent Grant, page-23

….does this mean Idronoxil/phenoxidiol/NV06 is now under patent again or just the method of admixture delivery through suppository…. can anyone still buy Idronoxil/Phenoxodiol/NV06 and bake a cake out of it if they wish or does this now mean it's patented again?

I was trying to get my head around how a suppository could be patented given how long its been in existence for….

….it seems this patent creates a lot of openings in the suppository space.


Idronoxil isn’t novel; nor are suppositories. But they are not claimed to be so in EP3439644 - ISOFLAVONOID COMPOSITION WITH IMPROVED PHARMACOKINETICS.

The patent claims a method of treatment.

Although a “method of treatment”, strictly speaking, isn’t patentable in Europe (Article 53(c) EPC), a substance or composition may be patented for a specific use in a therapy (Article 54(5) EPC).

This leads to the purpose-limited product claim.

A purpose-limited product claim can derive novelty and inventive step from either the substance or composition that is used, or from the method that it is used in.

If the substance or composition has been used previously in medicine, a purpose-limited product claim may be used to protect a specific new method of use.

That new method of use may be a new disease to be treated, or it may be a different treatment of the same disease previously treated by that product (decision G2/08).

Novelty and inventive step can be based on steps of the method specified in the claim, such as a new dosage, a new route of administration, a new administration regime or a new patient group.

But a new dosage regime should fulfil a new technical effect or provide a new benefit for the patient (Gédéon v Mylan, 2014).

The Kelly/Porter patent, Isoflavonoid Composition with Improved Pharmacokinetics, makes claim for a specific isoflavonoid compound, with specific route of administration and specific dosage regime, used for a specific benefit in a specific patient population.

Its grant makes sense to me.

Purely my understanding based on reading around the topic.