LLY ELI LILLY & Co

Intellectual property protection is critical to our ability to successfully commercialize our life sciences innovations and invest in the search for new medicines. We own, have applied for, or are licensed under, a large number of patents in the U.S. and many other countries relating to products, product uses, formulations, and manufacturing processes. In addition, as discussed below, for some products we have effective intellectual property protection in the form of data protection under pharmaceutical regulatory laws. The patent protection anticipated to be of most relevance to pharmaceuticals is provided by national patents claiming the active ingredient (the compound patent), particularly those in major markets such as the U.S., various European countries, and Japan. These patents may be issued based upon the filing of international patent applications, usually filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). Patent applications covering compounds are generally filed during the Discovery Phase of the drug discovery process, which is described in the “Research and Development” section below. In general, national patents in each relevant country are available for a period of 20 years from the filing date of the PCT application, which is often years prior to the launch of a commercial product. Further patent term adjustments and restorations may extend the original patent term: