Patent Baristas

Blue Cross/Blue Shield and other insurers have sued GlaxoSmithKline in a dispute over the generics market of Paxil. The insurers are alleging that Glaxo has been gaming the patent system to keep cheaper generic alternatives to the antidepressant off the market. Glaxo lost its patent on Paxil in 2003. They accuse Glaxo of violating federal […]

As a Monday morning patent litigation round-up of interesting proceedings, I put together a list of recent actions. You just can’t tell the players without a program: Eli Lilly has filed a lawsuit to block Teva Pharmaceuticals from selling generic Symbyax after Teva filed for an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for generic Symbyax on […]

Merck & Co. announced it intends to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court asking to overturn the ruling that the patent on its blockbuster osteoporosis drug Fosamax will expire a decade earlier than expected. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected a Merck & Co. request to reconsider a decision […]

A federal judge in Indianapolis upheld Eli Lilly’s patent on Zyprexa,(USP 5,605,897) a treatment for schizophrenia that was among the top-selling drugs in the United States last year, with $2.4 billion in sales. Judge Young’s verdict comes more than a year after the trial in the case. Lilly sued Zenith Goldline Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, […]

TheDeal.com has a nice article outlining the issues that can arise in a large pharma mega-merger such as between French pharmaceuticals company Aventis SA takeover by Gallic rival Sanofi-Synthélabo SA, in a €53.3 billion ($69.1 billion) after Paris intervened to fend off a Swiss attempt. The results are still mixed. Sanofi-Aventis SA, the world’s No. […]

The U.S. Federal Circuit voted en banc to vacate a holding from a panel opinion with regard to the issue of experimental use, and the panel (J. Rader) has issued a new decision regarding a previous holding that the paroxetine hydrochloride anhydrate product produced by Apotex Corp. infringes Smithkline’s U.S. Patent No. 4,721,723 covering crystalline […]

Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a holding company that operates through its principal subsidiaries, Barr Laboratories, Inc. and Duramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., announced that the U.S. District Court in New Jersey has granted summary judgment of invalidity on an additional patent in their litigation challenging the patents on Allegra(R) (Fexofenadine Hydrochloride) allergy treatment products. The court had previously […]

There’s a nice update on the new Japanese Intellectual Property High Court on Bill Heinze’s I/P Updates blog. The new court was organized because the Supreme Court, which is supposed to unify legal precedents, takes too long to complete hearings and it now only rules on constitutional issues. The new court will reportedly have 18 […]