Monday, October 26, 2009

Teva Wins Yasmin "Obviousness" Patent Battle With Bayer-Schering Pharma


[UPDATE: I am under the impression that Bayer-Schering Pharma sells this product -- like the Levitra® products -- through an arm of Schering Corporation, an affiliate of Schering-Plough -- in some jurisdictions around the world. I am confirming which countries, and whether it is sold under the same sort of an marketing agreement/license as Levitra® (from Bayer-Schering Pharma). Thanks go to a commenter, below for asking after the relationship. Do see the Levitra series of posts, as well.]

After an en banc rehearing petition filed by Schering/Bayer was denied this afternoon, the full panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. has effectively let stand the decision of a three member Court of Appeals panel in that Circuit. The upshot of all of this is that Schering's Yasmin birth control pills may now reach the market in an authorized generic form, as marketed in the US and Europe by Teva Pharmaceuticals. Per Bloomberg wire reporting:

. . . .The full panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington declined to revisit an August judgment upholding a lower-court ruling that forced. . . an agreement to let Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s Barr unit begin selling Yasmin under its own label. . . .

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling, said in August that the trial judge was correct to rule that it would have been obvious for scientists to test a smaller particle size because it was well known that drospirenone was acid-sensitive. . . .

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey Condor, what's the tie-in on this story to ScheringPlough/Merck? I hope you realize Schering/Bayer is a completely different company than SP. Usually when you write about other pharma, you usually have a disclaimer about how the story relates to possible patents or how one law verdict may give insight to how a current SP one may be resolved.

condor said...

UPDATE: I am under the impression that Bayer-Schering Pharma sells this product -- like the Levitra product -- through an arm of Schering Corporation, an affiliate of Schering-Plough -- in some jurisdictions around the world. I am confirming which countries, and whether it is sold under the same sort of an acreement as Levitra®. Thanks go to the anonymous commenter, above, for asking after the relationship. Do see the Levitra series of posts, as well.

Namaste

condor said...

No firm answer yet, but interestingly, an expert witness for Barr (now owned by Teva) in the original litigation worked for Schering-Plough as a scientist:

. . . .Barr Expert Witnesses:

Walter G. Chambliss, Ph.D. is an expert in the formulation of drugs and dosage form design (1T 7, 7 through 15, 6). He is presently a Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Mississippi. He is also currently Director of Technology Management and a research professor in the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi. Dr. Chambliss received his undergraduate degree, masters degree, and doctorate, all in pharmaceutics, from the University of Mississippi. He has had a distinguished 27-year career in the private sector including holding the position of Vice President of Pharmaceuticals Research and Development at Schering-Plough, as well as spending time with G.D. Searle and Bristol Myers. He has authored a book and many articles on pharmaceutics generally, and specifically, on enteric coatings. . . .


Namaste

Anonymous said...

thanks. didn't see the connection before.

Negocio Inversiones said...

I really like this blog, you are very good making them. I say that the issue discussed in this blog is quite interesting and of high quality.