Patent Baristas

In Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc. v. Metabolite Laboratories, Inc., the Federal Circuit summarized the standard for personal jurisdiction in patent cases. Metabolite holds patents for a method of controlling hyperhomocysteinemia, a condition involving elevated serum metabolite levels, which is an emerging risk factor for heart and vascular disease, and its principal business involves licensing its patents […]

Eli Lilly and Company today got hammered by a jury in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts in Boston in a decision in the case of Ariad Pharmaceuticals et al. v. Eli Lilly and Company. The Jury handed down a verdict that U.S. Patent No. 6,410,516, owned by Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and […]

On April 30, 2006 Judge Richard W. Roberts of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in his memorandum opinion, has ruled in the favor of Ranbaxy & Ivax (acquired by Teva) by granting them summary judgment and contending that the FDA has acted contrary to the clear intent of Congress in its decision […]

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 […]