LML4801 Assignment 2 2025 – Due 24 April 2025

LML4801

Assignment 2, First semester 2025

Due Date: 24 April 2025

Scenario

Peter works for Pharmabayu Inc in South Africa, as a researcher testing various
dosage regimes of known and new pharmaceutical compounds. While on holiday, he
devises a new dosage regime for an existing pharmaceutical compound known to be
used in cardiac arrythmia management medicine since 2004. Pharmabayu applies for
a patent for which the patent claim for the patent (granted on 5 August 2023) reads as
follows: ‘The use of the compound (maxorevo) for the manufacture of a medicament
in an oral dosage form for the treatment of cardiac disorders for administration no
more than once daily for at least seven consecutive days, where said compound has
a plasma concentration half-life of 12 hours or less when orally administered to a
human patient, wherein the cardiac disorder is arrhythmia, and wherein the oral
dosage form is a rapid-release tablet.’
A rival pharmaceutical firm, R.D. Gen, decides to apply for the revocation of this
patent to bring their own cardiac arrythmia medicine (which also makes use of
maxorevo) to market. The maxorevo compound was first identified in March 2001.