BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Allergan, Eli Lilly cancer news

February 22, 2016 8:00 AM UTC

The U.K. High Court ruled that Eli Lilly’s Alimta pemetrexed vitamin dosing regimen patent would not be infringed by Allergan marketing pemetrexed salt formulations in the U.K., France, Italy and Spain with instructions to dilute the product only with dextrose solution. Lilly said the court’s decision “expressly allows either party to ask for the decision to be revisited if there is a material change of circumstances at any point in the remaining life of the patent.” The pharma plans to seek permission to appeal the decision to the U.K. Court of Appeal. The patent covering vitamin dosing regimens of Alimta expires in June 2021. In major European countries, the compound patents covering Alimta expired in December 2015.

Last June, the U.K. Court of Appeals ruled that Lilly’s patent would be indirectly infringed by Allergan marketing pemetrexed salt formulations with instructions to dilute the product with saline solution. Lilly said the appeals court left open the question of whether an alternative salt form with instructions to dilute only in dextrose solution would infringe (see BioCentury, July 20, 2015). ...