Supreme Court ruling clarifies patent rules for medical treatments

Partners Yael Bienenstock, Teresa Reguly and Andrew Shaughnessy have co-authored an article titled “Supreme Court of Canada Affirms Law on Methods of Medical Treatment,” for the Fall 2026 edition of the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s (AIPLA) Chemical Practice Chronicles newsletter.

The article looks at a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision that upheld Canada’s approach to patenting methods of medical treatment and confirmed that some drug dosing regimens may be patented. An excerpt of the article is below.

Earlier this year, on July 17, 2026, the Supreme Court of Canada released a highly anticipated decision on the issue of the patenting of methods of medical treatment. That decision, Pharmascience Inc. v. Janssen Inc., 2026 SCC 26, upheld the validity of a patent to a long-acting dosing regimen for the treatment of schizophrenia. While the both parties to the appeal asked the court to do a major overhaul of the prohibition on patenting methods of medical treatment (MoMT), a seven-judge majority left the law essentially intact: claims to methods of medical treatment are impermissible, but this prohibition is narrow, and only applies to those claims that seek to monopolize “professional skill and judgement.” Two judges, in a concurring decision, would also have upheld Janssen’s patent but would have gone further and erased the prohibition against MoMT.

You can read the full piece in the AIPLA’s newsletter here.

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