Australia's Patents Act disclosure: adding to the patent thicket around biologic pharmaceuticals

This article examines how Australia’s Patents Act’s disclosure requirements affect access to biologic medicines. Patenting a biologic cell line will satisfy disclosure in biologic product patents required in the Patents Act. Therefore, the Patents Act likely contributes to the patent thicket around biologic pharmaceutical molecules but does not extend biologic product patent terms. While the Patents Act’s disclosure provisions may inhibit competitor entry in the market by forcing consideration of multiple patents protecting a single biologic, access to biologic medicines is unlikely adversely affected by the specific thicket facilitated by the Patents Act as there is no concurrent product patent term extension.