BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics, Policy & Law

Doctoring the Lilly Doctrine

August 31, 2009 7:00 AM UTC

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision to rehear Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Eli Lilly and Co. gives the court another opportunity to clear up the confusion that has been festering since 1997 over exactly what a patent must describe.

The case concerns U.S. Patent No. 6,410,516, which covers methods of treating human disease by reducing the activity of NF-kappa B (NF-kB), a regulator of gene transcription. The patent was issued to Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Ariad is the exclusive licensee...