See the DrugPatentWatch profile for Entacapone
When does the entacapone patent expire?
The exact patent expiry date for entacapone depends on which specific patent family and jurisdiction you mean (the drug has multiple patents covering different things such as formulations, manufacturing, or methods of use). With only the word “entacapone” and no patent number(s) or country provided, the expiry date cannot be stated accurately.
If you tell me the country (for example, US, EU/UK, Canada, or India) and, if you have it, a patent number or brand/company name for the specific product you care about, I can narrow it down to the correct expiry and any expected “last day to market” or exclusivity end dates for that jurisdiction.
How can I find the right entacapone expiry date for my country?
Patent expiry for a medicine like entacapone is usually easiest to pin down by checking:
- The drug’s marketed-product “patent landscape” (listed in company filings, national regulator pages, or patent registers), and
- The specific patent(s) covering that product, not just the active ingredient.
To do this, you typically need at least one of:
- the country/region (e.g., US vs EU),
- the brand name and manufacturer in that market, and/or
- a listed patent number from a regulator/patent register.
What affects entacapone’s “market” launch timing besides patent expiry?
Even after a patent’s stated expiry date, real-world entry timing can be affected by:
- patent term extensions or supplementary protection certificates (common in Europe),
- other still-active patents in the same family or related families,
- regulatory exclusivities (which can vary by region), and
- patent litigation stay/settlement arrangements (in markets with those mechanisms).
Because these factors are jurisdiction-specific, the same “patent expiry date” can translate into different “first allowed marketing” timelines depending on where you are.
Are there multiple patents for entacapone, and do all of them expire at once?
Usually no. Medicines often have:
- primary composition-of-matter patents,
- follow-on patents (for formulations, dosing, manufacturing, or polymorphs),
- and sometimes separate patents tied to specific dosage forms.
That means a generic or biosimilar-style “one date” story often doesn’t match reality for small-molecule drugs unless you identify the exact patent(s) that block entry in that country.
If I’m looking for generic availability, what should I check instead?
For practical purposes, people often want the “earliest time a generic can be marketed” rather than the expiry of the active ingredient patent in the abstract. The quickest approach is to look for:
- the approved generic(s) in that country,
- the regulator’s patent linkage or listed blocking patents (where available),
- and the regulator or patent register’s “expiry/termination” fields.
What I need from you to answer with a specific expiry date
Reply with any one of the following and I’ll give you a precise, cited expiry answer:
1) the country/region, or
2) the patent number(s), or
3) the brand name and manufacturer in your target market (e.g., UK/EU vs US).
Sources
No sources were provided with your question, and none were supplied that specify entacapone patent numbers or jurisdiction-specific expiry dates.