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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Ind. Decisions - "Lilly wins major Zyprexa patent case."

On April 15, 2005, the Indianapolis Star reported, in a story headlined "Lilly wins Round 1 of Zyprexa battle: Appeal is certain and likely will take a year or longer", that:

A federal judge Friday upheld Eli Lilly and Co.'s Zyprexa patent, giving the drugmaker a critical and clear-cut court victory over generic drug challengers trying to cash in on Lilly's top-selling drug.

In his long-awaited decision, which came 14 months after the patent infringement trial ended, U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Young shot down all six legal claims made against the Zyprexa patent.

Here is the today's Star story, headlined "Court protects Lilly's patent on $4.2B drug." Some quotes:
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling Tuesday that protects the Indianapolis company's patent on its top-selling drug, Zyprexa, which last year generated $4.2 billion in sales.

The ruling will keep generic pharmaceutical companies at bay until 2011 -- something Lilly wasn't able to do in 2000, when Barr Laboratories broke the company's patent on Prozac three years early. * * *

The case stems from a patent challenge by generic drug maker Zenith Goldline Pharmaceuticals, which applied in 2001 to sell a generic version of Zyprexa. Lilly sued Zenith and two other generic drug makers, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.

The companies argued that Lilly's patent was no longer valid because discovery of Zyprexa's molecular structure was obvious and a previous Lilly patent had covered it.

Judge Richard L. Young, of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, sided with Lilly in 2005. The companies then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.

Stuart Sender, an attorney for Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, said he didn't know whether the companies would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But even if they do, A.G. Edwards & Sons analyst Joe Tooley doubts the earlier ruling will be overturned. "There's a low probability that the Supreme Court would take a case like this," he said.

Here are some earlier ILB entries on the case.

Here is a link to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit 23-page opinion in the case of Eli Lilly v. Zenith Goldline Pharmaceuticals.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 27, 2006 07:14 PM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions