BioMarin, Sarepta Therapeutics musculoskeletal news

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) issued a patent interference ruling that granted priority to a patent application covering BioMarin’s drisapersen ( PRO051) over an issued patent covering Sarepta’s eteplirsen ( AVI-4658). The board also issued a decision canceling Sarepta’s patent. Both candidates are in development to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

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. Sarepta plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC). ...