District court decides Eli Lilly must pay $20m over Cialis

Eli Lilly has been ordered by a district court to pay Germany-based company Erfindergemeinschaft UroPep $20 million for patent infringement.

The ruling, which was handed down yesterday at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Marshall Division, came after a jury verdict that Eli Lilly was liable for infringement.

The patent involved is US patent number 8,791,124 owned by UroPep. It covers treatment of prostatic disease and is titled “Use of phosphodiesterase inhibitors in the treatment of prostatic diseases.”

According to the ruling, the jury found that Eli Lilly failed to prove the patent invalid on grounds of anticipation, obviousness, lack of adequate written description, and lack of enablement.

UroPep sued Eli Lilly in July 2015, alleging infringement of patent ’124.

In January 2008, Eli Lilly  announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved the use of Cialis (tadalafil) to treat erectile dysfunction.

In 2010, Eli Lilly filed a supplemental application with the FDA, proposing Cialis for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), an enlarged prostate gland. The supplemental application was approved in 2011.

UroPep claimed that the sale of Cialis for BPH requires a licence to the ’124 patent.

In the district court order, Eli Lilly was also ordered to pay UroPep prejudgment interest of $930,100.