On January 5, 2024, in litigation between REGENXBIO and Sarepta Therapeutics, Judge Richard Andrews of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware District Court granted summary judgment for Sarepta and ruled that University of Pennsylvania’s (“Penn”) U.S. Patent No. 10,526,617 (the ’617 Patent; licensed to REGENXBIO) is invalid…
As we have previously reported, in November 2023 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Regeneron”) filed complaints against Celltrion, Samsung Bioepis and Formycon (collectively, “the Defendants”) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, alleging patent infringement under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (“BPCIA”) based on the…
Emergency Motion for Entry of a PI Schedule Against Celltrion, Formcyon, and Samsung Bioepis On December 28, Regeneron filed emergency motions for entry of a PI schedule in its aflibercept BPCIA cases against Celltrion, Inc., Formycon AG, and Samsung Bioepis (“Samsung”). Regeneron seeks a PI schedule to “ensure an orderly…
On December 19, a German court invalidated CureVac’s messenger RNA technology patent, EP 1 857 122 B1, in a lawsuit brought by CureVac against its rival BioNTech. CureVac, a biopharmaceutical company developing messenger RNA therapeutics for COVID-19 vaccines, announced that it will appeal the decision before the German Federal Court…
As previously reported by Big Molecule Watch, trial in Regeneron’s BPCIA case against Biocon regarding Biocon’s proposed aflibercept biosimilar concluded on June 15, 2023 in the Northern District of West Virginia. The patents-at-issue are directed to formulations and dosing regimens for aflibercept, an anti-VEGF treatment for retinal disorders including age-related…
According to PWC, “2023 was a reasonably strong year for the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector with both deal value and volume of M&A close to pre-pandemic levels.” Below is a recap of the top M&A deals in 2023 that focus on biologics and biosimilars and were covered on the…
On December 15, 2023, Vertex announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use of the European Medicines Agency has adopted a positive opinion for the conditional approval of CASGEVY (exagamglogene autotemcel [exa-cel]), a CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy, for the treatment of severe sickle cell disease (SCD) and transfusion-dependent beta…
As an update to our previous report, Biocon Biologics Ltd. (a subsidiary of Biocon Ltd.) announced the successful completion of the transition of the acquired biosimilars business in approximately 120 countries, a year ahead of schedule. On December 18, 2023, IAVI, a global nonprofit scientific research organization, and Spanish biopharmaceutical…
In the last month, there has been a flurry of activity at the PTAB related to challenges from biosimilar manufacturers related to ustekinumab, aflibercept, and eculizumab patents. 1. STELARA® (ustekinumab) Four months after Janssen Biotech, Inc. settled to terminate Samsung Bioepis Co., Ltd.’s inter partes review (IPR) challenge of U.S….
On December 8, 2023, the FDA approved the first cell-based gene therapies for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD) in patients 12 years and older—Vertex’s CASGEVY and Bluebird’s LYFGENIA. SCD is a group of inherited blood disorders affecting approximately 100,000 people in the U.S. and inducing a median life…