The Federal Court of Appeal issued strong reasons reprimanding
the Patented Medicines Prices Review Board for overstepping its
jurisdiction. The Court found "the Board crashed through the
constitutional, statutory and jurisprudential guardrails. Or to use
the more orthodox, formal, administrative law language [...] the
Board exceeded the constraints acting upon it."
The Board regulates the pricing of medicines that are under the
market power given by a patent. It does not regulate unpatented
medicines.
Galderma's product, Differin, was a patented medicine until
the patent expired in 2009. In 2016, the Board ordered Galderma to
produce pricing information for periods after Differin became
unpatented. The Board considered that Differin remained a patented
medicine on the basis that there remained a patent (the 237 Patent)
relating to Differin XP, a separate medicine with a higher
concentration of the same active ingredient. The Federal Court
found the Board's
