Patent Baristas

In Eli Lilly & Co. v. Emisphere Technologies, Inc., a district court judge has decided that Eli Lilly doesn’t have any rights to a patent it applied for based on its partner’s technology after ruling that Lilly breached its contract with Emisphere by setting up a secret research team to study its partner’s technology. Under […]

The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 requires drug companies to file certain agreements with the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. The FTC’s Bureau of Competition has now issued a summary of agreements filed with the Commission in fiscal year 2005 by generic and branded drug manufacturers. The […]

A federal District Court ruled that a terminal disclaimer does not negate Patent Term Extension. King Pharma v. Teva Pharma, 78 USPQ2d 1237 (D.N.J. 2006). In a patent dispute, Teva argued that Wyeth’s patent on zaleplon drug products had expired because of a terminal disclaimer. Wyeth, and its exclusive licensee King Pharma, argued that patent’s […]

The European Commission has given Sandoz, the generic division of Novartis, approval for the sale of a generic version of a human growth hormone, making it the first generic of a biotechnology drug authorized for sale in Europe. The approved drug, Omnitrope®, is based on Pfizer’s Genotropin, a treatment for abnormal growth and growth hormone […]

[Today’s post is a guest commentary on the NewStandard article about drug companies getting taxpayer supported government grants and then extracting large profits on drug sales.] If I may comment on the [previous post: Do Drug Companies ‘Gouge’ Consumers With Taxpayer Handouts? ], what is the fair price for any product? When people purchase high-priced […]

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to decide after a long delay whether Novartis AG can market a version of human growth hormone as a bioequivalent to the one already sold by Pfizer Inc. The order by Judge Ricardo Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia […]

Prof. James Edward Maule, at MauledAgain, plays host to a special Tax Day Edition of Blawg Review #53. But, as Prof. Maule points out, every day is Tax Day given the plethora of ways in which governmental agencies extract their pound of flesh. Sales taxes. Real estate transfer taxes. Use taxes. Telephone taxes. Tire excise […]

Rep. Jenkins introduced a bill, H.R. 5120, to amend title 35, United States Code, to change the provisions for patent term extensions for drup patents. Specifically, the bill would amend 35 USC 156, which extends the term for a patent where the product has been subject to a regulatory review period before its commercial marketing […]