On September 9, 2016, Hospira filed a petition for an IPR of U.S. Patent No. 7,622,115, owned by Genentech. The ‘115 patent claims methods of treating various cancers with bevacizumab, which is marketed by Genentech under the brand name Avastin®. Please see our IPR tracker page for all important IPR…
On September 8, 2016, the Board instituted an IPR of U.S. Patent No. 6,331,415, one of the Cabilly patents owned by Genentech. The Petitioner in IPR2016-00710 is Mylan. The ’415 patent was the subject of two other IPRS that were terminated last week following settlements between Genentech and those Petitioners, Sanofi-Aventis and…
The FDA has announced a 2-day public hearing related to communications by manufacturers, packers, and distributors, regarding, in part, drugs licensed as biological products. There will be a particular focus on communications about unapproved uses of their approved/cleared medical products, including biologics. The public hearing will be held on November…
Precision for Value evaluated various considerations that factor into the level of biosimilars uptake, focusing primarily on Europe’s recent introduction of biosimilar anti-tumor necrosis factor drugs (anti-TNF drugs). Amongst its findings, the authors discovered that discounts do not correlate to the level of biosimilar uptake, and that factors such as…
On September 2, 2016, the PTAB terminated IPR2015-01624 and IPR2016-00460, both of which challenged U.S. Patent No. 6,331,415, one of Genentech’s Cabilly patents. The Petitioners in those IPRs were Sanofi-Aventis and Genzyme, respectively. The parties in each IPR had filed a joint request for termination following a confidential settlement agreement….
The District Court for the Southern District of Florida today ruled that Apotex’s proposed filgrastim and pegfilgrastim products will not infringe the asserted claims of Amgen’s ’138 patent (U.S. Patent. No. 8,952,138). The court, having found in favor of Apotex on the infringement issue, did not reach Apotex’s counterclaim that the…
Last week, Mylan N.V. and Biocon Ltd. announced that the European Medicines Agency has accepted Mylan’s Marketing Authorization Application for a proposed biosimilar version of Genentech’s Herceptin (trastuzumab). Trastuzumab is indicated in Europe to treat certain breast cancers and gastric cancers that overexpress the HER2 protein. As we reported previously, Mylan…
A couple of updates on Amgen v. Hospira (epoetin alfa): Amgen has requested that the district court (D. Del., J. Andrews) grant it leave to file a second amended complaint “to add three additional defendants” who, Amgen alleges, “have directly or indirectly infringed Amgen’s patent-in-suit, United States Patent No. 5,756,349.” Meanwhile, Hospira…
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate will not vote on the TPP agreement this year, seemingly foreclosing the possibility of passage during President Obama’s tenure. Administration officials continue to push for the deal and hold out hope as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew noted in comments at the Brookings Institute. Meanwhile,…
Yesterday, Mylan filed two petitions for inter partes review of Genentech’s U.S. Patent No. 6,407,213. According the petitions, the patent is directed to humanized antibodies, and Mylan expects that Genentech will rely on data regarding Herceptin® (trastuzumab) in its arguments regarding secondary considerations. We will continue to monitor and report…