Australia's highest court has recently confirmed that
patents are available for the broad grounds of methods of medical
treatment.
In Apotex Pty Ltd v Sanofi-Aventis Australia Pty Ltd,
Sanofi had been granted a patent for a new use of a known medical
compound leflumonide. The new use was in the treatment of a variant
of psoriasis.
The patent was attacked on the basis that it was for a method of
medical treatment. The court rejected the attack and held that an
expansive view should be taken of our Patents Act. The method of
medical treatment by utilisation of a compound should be patent
eligible.
Whilst the court accepted that the finding would likely
liberalise the granting of patents in this area, it considered any
restrictions were best left to the legislature. It did however
consider that activities or procedures of doctors and medical staff
when physically treating patents were still unlikely to be patent
eligible.
