Court of Appeals overturns patent infringement suit against Eli Lilly & Co.

INDIANAPOLIS A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of Eli Lilly & Co. in a patent infringement lawsuit.

Lilly announced last week that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington overturned a decision in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts in the case of Ariad Pharmaceuticals et al. v. Eli Lilly & Co. The lower court had decided that a patent owned by Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Whitehead Institute and licensed to Ariad was valid and that Lilly had infringed it by selling the drugs Evista (raloxifene hydrochloride) and Xigris (drotrecrogin alfa [activated]).

“We are pleased with today’s ruling from the Court of Appeals and believe that the court fairly applied long-standing patent law principles,” Lilly SVP and general counsel Robert Armitage said. “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.”