On August 8th InsiderHealthPolicy.com’s FDA Week, an exclusive weekly report on Food and Drug Administration Policy, regulation and enforcement, published an article titled “Biosimilar ‘Patent Dance,’ Litigation Could Coincide With Possible Approval”. The article discusses the FDA’s recent acceptance of the first biosimilar application from Sandoz for a biosimilar filgrastim, a version of Amgen’s Neupogen. This acceptance of Sandoz’s application has also set off a series of deadlines outlined in statute that will determine which patents the two companies will litigate. MBBP Patent Attorney David Fazzolare was quoted in the article discussing the patent exchange process including several other deadlines before possibly resulting in litigation. David stated:
The earliest that I see anything publicly happening, absent any press releases from Sandoz and Amgen, is March of next year.
The same two companies are currently engaged in litigation over patents related to a different product, Enbrel, which is currently on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and oral arguments are slated for Sept. 10.
For more information on this topic, please contact David Fazzolare.
