Court of Appeals favors Lilly in Ariad case

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC has overturned a lower court decision and ruled in favor of US drug major  Eli Lilly in the case of Ariad Pharmaceuticals et al versus Lilly.

An earlier jury decision in the US District Court of Massachusetts, and  a subsequent bench trial ruling, had deemed that a patent owned by  Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the  Whitehead Institute, and licensed to Ariad, was valid and infringed by  Lilly's sales of Evista (raloxifene) and Xigris (drotrecogin alfa). This  ruling by the Court of Appeals overturned that prior verdict, concluding  that Ariad's patent claims are invalid for failing to meet the written  description requirement.

"We are pleased with today's ruling from the Court of Appeals and  believe that the Court fairly applied long-standing patent law  principles," said Robert Armitage, senior vice president and general  counsel for Lilly. "Over many years the Court's rulings have provided  effective protection for biotechnology inventions while rejecting  attempts at claims extending beyond the inventor's work," he added.