PTAB favors BioMarin over Sarepta in DMD ruling

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent interference ruling that granted priority to a patent application covering drisapersen ( PRO051) from BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN) over an issued patent covering eteplirsen ( AVI-4658) from Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT). The board also issued a decision canceling Sarepta's patent. Both candidates are in development to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Last year, PTAB declared a patent interference between BioMarin's U.S. Patent Application No. 14/198,992 and Sarepta's U.S. Patent No. 8,486,907, which both claim methods of using exon 51 skipping antisense oligonucleotides to treat DMD. The University of Western Australia, which licensed its patent to Sarepta, was designated the junior party in the interference, and therefore held the burden of proof to establish an earlier date of invention. ...