Posts Tagged: "international phase"

A PCT application is an international application that is filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), which currently has 151 contracting states. A PCT application is filed with an appropriate Receiving Office within 12 months from the date of first filing (where applicable). The main advantage of a PCT application is that an applicant generally gets 30/31 months from the date of first filing to file individual National Phase applications in jurisdictions of interest. However, one must consider the costs associated with the PCT Process.

It is estimated that more than 30 million people in the United States and Europe have a food allergy, and more than five million people in the United States and Europe have peanut allergy, including more than two million children. Bouyed by success in earlier rounds of FDA testing, Aimmune Therapeutics, Inc. (NADSAQ: AIMT) announced earlier today that it has enrolled the first patient in the pivotal Phase 3 PALISADE trial of its lead product candidate, AR101 for the treatment of peanut allergy. Previously, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted AR101 Breakthrough Therapy Designation status, and in September 2014 the FDA gave AR101 fast track designation even before Phase 2 clinical data was available.

For better or for worse, there is no such thing as a world-wide patent. There is, however, something that approximates a world-wide patent application that can ultimately result in a patent being obtained in most countries around the world. This patent application is known as an International Patent Application, or simply an International Application. The international treaty that authorizes the filing of a single patent application to be treated as a patent application in countries around the world is the Patent Cooperation Treaty, most commonly referred to as the PCT. You can file an International Application pursuant to the rules of the PCT and that application will effectively act as a world-wide patent application, or at least a patent application in all of those countries that have ratified the PCT, which is virtually all of the countries where you would want a patent anyway.