Daiichi Sankyo defeats Alethia in IPR

Japan-based pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo has secured victory in an inter partes review against Canada-based Alethia Biotherapeutics.

“The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the US Patent and Trademark Office accepted Daiichi Sankyo’s petition, originally filed in November 2014.

In a decision handed down on June 14, the PTAB invalidated all of the claims that Daiichi Sankyo had challenged.

The pharmaceutical company had challenged claims 1−6, 8−11, and 15−23 of the patent, all of which centre on methods of impairing osteoclast differentiation using antibodies that bind Siglec-15, a therapeutic target on osteoclasts—a type of bone cell that breaks down bone tissue.

In its judgment, the PTAB said the petitioner had provided sufficient evidence to establish lack of priority so that the claims were anticipated.

It added that Alethia did not present sufficient evidence to predate the prior art.

Kristel Schorr, partner at law firm Foley & Lardner, which represented Daiichi Sankyo, said it was one of the first bio pharma IPRs relying on lack of written description and enablement to challenge priority entitlement and use an intervening prior art reference to ultimately invalidate the claims on anticipation grounds.

“While the Federal Circuit held in In re NTP that the board may consider priority in the context of a re-examination, this IPR decision is significant because it demonstrates the continued viability of this approach in attacking validity of a patent in an IPR.”