Trial Instituted Against Novartis’s Patent for Afinitor® Drug
Trial was instituted for an inter partes review (IPR) against all claims of the last-expiring patent listed as covering Novartis Pharmaceuticals’ Afinitor® (everolimus tablet) drug in the Food & Drug Administration’s Orange Book. Laurence & Phillips IP Law filed the petition on behalf of Argentum Pharmaceuticals LLC. Argentum challenges claims 1−3 of Novartis’s U.S. Patent No. 9,006,224, which the Orange Book states will expire in 2028. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board concluded that Argentum has established a “reasonable likelihood that [Argentum] would prevail with respect to claims 1–3” of the ’224 Patent. Claims 1–3 are directed to a method for treating pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors with 40-O-(2 hydroxyethyl)-rapamycin. Rapamycin is a known macrolide antibiotic produced by Streptomyces hygroscopicus of the formula:
