English High Court revokes Regeneron’s transgenic mice patents

The English High Court has revoked two European patents owned by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals covering transgenic mice.

Yesterday, February 2, Mr Justice Carr rejected Regeneron’s claims that Kymab and Novo Nordisk infringed the patents.

Both patents cover transgenic mice that can be used as a tool for experimenting with therapeutic antibodies.

Regeneron claimed that the defendants infringed its patents when they supplied transgenic mice to pharma companies.

Shortly before the trial, Regeneron dropped its claim against Novo, but Novo continued with its patent revocation claim alongside Kymab.

Kymab and Novo challenged the patents on the grounds of insufficieny, obviousness and that they were anticipated.

Carr rejected the obvious and anticipated arguments.

But he agreed with the defendants that “the skilled person would not have been able to perform the invention over the whole area claimed without undue burden and without needing inventive skill”.