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Greenblum & Bernstein, P.L.C. BIOTECHNOLOGY And BIOSIMILARS PRACTICE GROUP NEWSLETTER Recent News in Intellectual Property |
January 2011 |
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In This Issue · $46 Million Jury Verdict Against Total Vein Solutions and Biolitic, Inc. · Biosimilar Enoxaparin Update Contact Us: www.gbpatent.com gbpatent@gbpatent.com 703-716-1191 (phone) 703-716-1180 (fax) |
$46 Million Jury Verdict Against Total Vein Solutions and Biolitic, Inc. A jury in the Northern District of California concluded that Total Vein Solutions LLC and Biolitec AG infringed patents owned by Covidien PLC (a subsidiary of VNUS Medical Technologies) and awarded $46 million in damages ($36.5 against Total Vein and $9.3 against Biolitec). The jury found the infringement “willful” which could lead to an increase in the damage award. The jury also invalidated several claims of Covidien’s three patents-in-suit. In 2008, VNUS (later acquired by Covidien) sued the defendants (and others), for indirect infringement, alleging that the defendants sold products (laser fibers, laser consoles, introducer kits and procedure packs) that performed the methods claimed in its patents, namely, methods to treat veinous reflux disease, which causes varicose veins. Post-trial motions as well as appeals are expected. Biosimilar Enoxaparin UpdateSandoz (the Novartis generic arm), and its partner Momenta Pharmaceuticals, filed suit against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., seeking to prevent Teva from selling a competing version of enoxaparin, the follow-on biologic of the Sanofi-Aventis drug Lovenox®. Lovenox® is used to prevent and treat blood clots. Sandoz reported $292 million in 2010 third quarter revenues from the sale of enoxaparin. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and involves U.S. Patent Nos. 7,790,466 and 7,575,886. Teva filed an application with the FDA for a generic version of Lovenox and is currently awaiting an approval to market its version of enoxaparin. |
