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8 February 2016Americas

Supernus claims epilepsy patent win

Supernus Pharmaceuticals has defeated Actavis in a patent infringement dispute centring on epilepsy drug Oxtellar XR (oxcarbazepine).

In a ruling handed down at the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, Judge Renee Marie Bumb said that Actavis infringed two patents through its attempt to market a generic version of the drug.

The patents, US numbers 7,722,898 and 7,910,131, were infringed by Actavis’s submission of an Abbreviated New Drug Application to the US Food and Drug Administration, the court said.

In 2013, Allergan, which was later bought by Actavis, had sought to market a generic version of Oxtellar XR  before Supernus’s patents were due to expire in 2027.

Bumb also declared that both patents, as well as a third that was asserted but was found not to have been infringed, were valid.

Jack Khattar, president of Maryland-based Supernus, said: “We are pleased with the court’s ruling that Actavis will infringe two of our patents on Oxtellar XR.

“We will continue to vigorously defend our novel products and build upon our strong intellectual property to provide our products the protection they are entitled to,” he added.

Actavis bought Allergan for $70 billion in 2015.