Lilly continues to sweep court rulings regarding Alimta patent

By Maggie Lynch

- Last updated on GMT

(Image: Getty/BCFC)
(Image: Getty/BCFC)

Related tags Eli lilly Eli lilly and company Patent Dr reddy Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Hospira

Courts continue to rule in favor of Lilly’s lung cancer treatment patent, as the District Court for Appeals concludes generic producers like Dr Reddy’s to be potentially infringing.

Eli Lilly and Company announced that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit court ruled that competitors attempting to market alternative salt forms of the vitamin regimen for Alimta (pemetrexed for injection) would be infringing on the company’s patent.

The patented vitamin regimen for Alimta includes a B12 injection a week prior to the first dose and then one every three cycles of treatment. Folic acid and corticosteroids are also part of the vitamin regimen used to mitigate the risk of harmful side effects associated with the treatment.

Alimta is a treatment for advanced nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) from Lilly. It generated global sales of $2.13bn (€1.90bn) in 2018.

The therapy can also be used in combination with cisplatin for the treatment of chemotherapy naïve patients with unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma. Almita is also prescribed to be used in addition to platinum chemotherapy and Merck’s blockbuster Keytruda (prembrolizumab).

Following appeals of US District Court decisions in the cases of Lilly versus Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Lilly versus Hospira, the US Court of Appeals once again ruled in favor of Lilly.

The ruling stated that competitors intending to market alternative salt forms of pemetrexed before the drug’s patent expired in May 2022, would be guilty of infringement.

Should the courts continue to rule in favor of Lilly in any additional challenges, no generic products to replace the vitamin regimen will be able to enter market before the expiration of Alimta’s patent.

Michael Harrington, senior vice president and general counsel at Eli Lilly said in a statement, “Lilly’s extensive research to discover this patent deserves intellectual property protection, which has been confirmed in every challenge in the US to date.”

Previous challenges to the drug that led to this recent appeal ruling saw the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana rule in favor of Lilly against Dr Reddy’s in June 2018, and a separate decision from the US District Court rule in favor of Lilly against Hospira in the same month.

The US Court for the Southern District of Indiana upheld the validity of the vitamin regimen patent for Alimta in March 2014 and ruled in Lilly’s favor regarding infringement of the patent in August 2015.

A unanimous decision in January 2017 confirmed the 2014 and 2015 rulings finding the patent valid and any generic challengers’ proposed products to be infringing on it.

Related news

Show more

Related products

show more

Increasing the Bioavailability of Oncology Drugs

Increasing the Bioavailability of Oncology Drugs

Content provided by Lonza Small Molecules | 13-Nov-2023 | White Paper

Oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are a class of cancer drugs that can be highly susceptible to issues with solubility in the gastrointestinal tract

Efficient Freezing & Storage of Biopharmaceuticals

Efficient Freezing & Storage of Biopharmaceuticals

Content provided by Single Use Support | 06-Nov-2023 | White Paper

Various options exist for freezing biopharmaceutical bulk material, but selecting the most effective and efficient approach for each cold chain can be...

Manufacturing Drugs with Highly Potent APIs

Manufacturing Drugs with Highly Potent APIs

Content provided by Altasciences | 28-Sep-2023 | White Paper

In this issue of The Altascientist, we examine the critical considerations for the safe and compliant manufacture of drugs with highly potent APIs (HPAPIs),...

Follow us

Products

View more

Webinars