The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued a notice to clarify disclosure duties owed to it entitled Duties of Disclosure and Reasonable Inquiry During Examination, Reexamination, and Reissue, and for Proceedings Before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (“the Notice”). Parties have a duty of candor and good faith to the USPTO. This […]
Last week, the FDA rejected Vanda Pharmaceutical’s Citizen Petition requesting that FDA withhold approval of ANDAs for its schizophrenia drug, Fanapt®, for three years. (Letter from Janet Woodcock, M.D., Director Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, to Richard L. Gulino, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., dated Nov. 28, 2016.) Specifically, […]
Companies currently holding the exclusive rights to biologics should be celebrating the Federal Circuit’s decision released earlier this week. In Amgen v. Apotex, the Court held that all biosimilar applicants must provide a 180-day notice to owners of the NDA for the referenced biologic before engaging in commercial marketing of their biosimilars. Amgen Inc. v. […]
The Federal Circuit handed down a decision interpreting the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (BPCIA) in a way that effectively grants branded biologics an additional six months of exclusivity. However, in a win for biosimilar applicants, the Federal Circuit also held that the statutory directive to disclose abbreviated application and manufacturing information to the […]
In Classen Immunotherapies, Inc. v. Elan Pharms., Inc., the Federal Circuit determined that an NDA-holder’s post-approval activities fall within the scope of the § 271(e) safe harbor. 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 7854 (Fed. Circ. May 13, 2015). Specifically, 35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(1) exempts activities reasonably relating to developing clinical data on an approved drug and submitting that […]
A United States District Court has decided generic versions of aripiprazole (Abilify®) may proceed to market despite the brand name drug’s orphan drug status. On April 28, 2015, the FDA approved four generic versions of aripiprazole (Abilify®), which is marketed and sold by Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. Otsuka sought a temporary restraining order that would […]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) recently issued Draft Guidance to the Industry, titled “New Chemical Entity Exclusivity Determinations for Certain Fixed-Combination Drug Products,” that proposes a change in its longstanding policy concerning 5-year new chemical entity (“NCE”) exclusivity for fixed-combination drug products. For many years, FDA’s interpretation of the word “drug” in certain provisions […]