Fresh From the Bench: Latest Federal Circuit Court Cases

CASE OF THE WEEK

Impax Laboratories Inc. v. Lannett Holdings Inc., Appeal No. 2017-2020 (Fed. Cir. June 28, 2018)

In an appeal taken from the Delaware district court, the Federal Circuit extended deference to the district court’s decision to uphold validity of two patents despite a specific, albeit brief, teaching of the claimed pharmaceutical formulation in a prior art reference. The patents at issue claimed formulations for intranasal administration of having zolmitriptan as the active ingredient. The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision that a second prior art reference “taught away” from the claimed formulation by teaching that a metabolite of zolmitriptan was more effective than zolmitriptan for intranasal applications. Though it found this to be a “close case,” the appellate court found that under the deferential “clearly erroneous” standard of review, the district court’s ruling had sufficient support in the evidence to avoid reversal.

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Written by: Scott Eads and Nika F. Aldrich, Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt

Contributors: Cristin Wagner