Eli Lilly and Eagle Pharma settle antitrust and infringement claims

US-based Eagle Pharmaceuticals has dropped its patent infringement and antitrust claims against Eli Lilly.

In separate filings on Monday, December 16, at the US District Court for the District of Delaware, the parties said they had reached an agreement under which all of Eagle’s claims against Lilly are dismissed.

The original complaints, which were both sealed, related to Eagle Pharma’s product Pemfexy, a branded alternative to Lilly’s Alimta (pemetrexed).

Neither party disclosed the details of the settlement, but in an announcement, Eagle said the settlement will allow for initial entry of Pemfexy into the market on February 1, 2022.

Pemfexy is an injectable chemotherapy agent for the treatment of lung cancer.

The settlement comes just months after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit confirmed that Lilly’s patent for Alimta would be infringed by generic competitors that had stated their intent to market alternative salt forms of the product prior to the patent’s expiration in May 2022.

In a statement at the time, Lilly’s senior vice president and general counsel, Michael Harrington, welcomed the decision.

“Lilly's extensive research to discover this patent deserves intellectual property protection, which has been confirmed in every challenge in the US to date,” he said.

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