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The Supreme Court of Canada (the “SCC”) has released its highly anticipated decision in Pharmascience Inc. v. Janssen Inc., 2026 SCC 26, an important case where the SCC considered whether Canada’s long-standing prohibition on patenting methods of medical treatment should be overturned.
The SCC declined to abolish the prohibition. A majority of the Court confirmed that professional skill and judgment cannot be monopolized through the patent system and held that methods of medical treatment are based on professional skill and judgment.
However, the SCC also clarified that not every invention related to medical treatment is an unpatentable method of medical treatment. The more a treatment is individualized to a particular patient, the more likely it is to fall within the prohibition. Conversely, a regimen that can be applied to a broad class of patients without individual adjustment is less likely to be an unpatentable method of medical treatment.
The SCC also provided guidance on the patentability of dosing regimens. The SCC rejected a bright-line rule that fixed dosing regimens are patentable while variable dosing regimens are not. Instead, the key question is whether the claimed regimen itself requires the exercise of professional medical skill and judgment.
Read the full decision here.
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