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It is not generally possible to patent a method of treatment of the human or animal body. Where, however, a new medical use is discovered for an existing compound or substance, this new medical use may be protected by a patent so long as the use is novel and inventive.

Before the update to the European Patent Convention (‘EPC�) in 2007, methods of treatment were considered not patentable as they did not have industrial applicability. However, a ‘Swiss Type� claim along the lines of, “use of a substance or composition X for the manufacture of a medicament for use in treatment of disease Y� used to be an acceptable format for covering the new use.

The updated EPC specifically spells out that methods of treatment are not patentable but it does allow patenting of a substance for a specific medical use - in effect protecting use of the product for a specific treatment. So claims along the lines of, “Substance or composition X for the use in the treatment of disease Y� may be considered novel so long as the use in the treatment of disease Y is novel. These are the new form of second medical use claims (�2MU�).

HMRC’s understanding is that both the old ‘Swiss Type� claims and new 2MU claims are meant to be equivalent and can protect the same ‘thing�, which can be taken to be a pharmaceutical product packaged/ labelled for an approved medical use.

For Patent Box purposes, where there is a patent protecting a pharmaceutical product packaged/ labelled for an approved medical use, that will be an item falling under Head 1 relevant IP income (S357BH(2)) regardless of whether it is a ‘Swiss Type� claim or a new 2MU claim.