District court upholds AstraZeneca’s migraine drug patents

The US District Court for the District of Delaware has upheld AstraZenca’s patents protecting Zomig (zolmitriptan) in a dispute with generic manufacturer Lannett.

Zomig is a nasal spray used to treat patients with migraine.

In the opinion, handed down on Wednesday, March 29, the court said that Lannett had failed to prove that the patents belonging to AstraZeneca were invalid.

The case arose when Impax, an exclusive licence holder of the Zomig patents, and AstraZeneca sued Lannett in 2014 alleging it had infringed AstraZeneca’s patents by filing an Abbreviated New Drug Application with the Food and Drug Administration.

The two patents-in-suit are US numbers 6,750,237 and 7,220,767.

Following the ruling of the district court, Paul Bisaro, president and CEO of Impax, said: “We are pleased with the court’s decision upholding the validity of the patents for Zomig nasal spray.”

He added: “We look forward to continuing to supply this product to patients and will continue to actively protect our intellectual property.”

The court order gives Lannett one week to request a cross-examination of an AstraZeneca witness.

If the company chooses not to, both parties are to submit an agreed form of final judgment within two weeks.