-->Novartis AG, seller of the Lucentis blindness treatment, sued AstraZeneca's
MedImmune unit and a U.K.-financed research agency in a bid to revoke an extension on patent protection for a drug manufacturing process.
The complaint, filed April 14 in the High Court in London
, seeks to annul a five-year protection certificate granted last month to MedImmune and the U.K. Medical Research Council's joint European patent for a way to make antibody fragments.
AstraZeneca is "evaluating the action," spokeswoman Abigail Baron said in an email. The company claims the "phage display" technology described in its patent is used to make ranibizumab, Lucentis' active ingredient.
Lucentis, developed by Roche Holding AG and its Genentech unit, last year generated sales of $1.53 billion for Switzerland-based Novartis, which markets the drug outside the U.S. The U.K. lawsuit was filed a month after Lucentis failed to win the backing of Britain's National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence in draft guidance on the treatment of diabetic macular edema. Roche sells the drug in the U.S.
So-called supplementary patent certificates are typically granted to drug companies that can prove a medicine wasn't marketed until long after the patent on it was granted.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Novartis sues AZ division, UK agency over patent | The News Journal
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