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5 April 2016Americas

Millennium Pharma sues Actavis over cancer drug

Pharmaceutical company Millennium Pharmaceuticals has sued Actavis, accusing it of infringing a patent covering a drug used to treat myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma.

Millennium said Actavis, now known as Allergan, attempted to market and sell a generic version of its Velcade (bortezomib) drug before the expiry of a key patent covering the drug’s compound.

The complaint, filed at the US District Court for the District of Delaware, was in response to Actavis’s New Drug Application (NDA) filed at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In the complaint, filed yesterday, March 4, Millennium said Actavis filed the application on February 19 this year.

In its NDA application, Actavis said the Millennium-owned patent, US number 6,713,446, was invalid, unenforceable and would not be infringed by the commercial manufacture and sale of the generic version.

The ‘446 patent expires in 2022.

“Actavis’s submission … for the purpose of obtaining approval to engage in the commercial manufacture, use, offer for sale, and/or sale of the Actavis NDA case product before the expiration of the ‘446 patent is an act of infringement,” Millennium said in its complaint.

Millennium is seeking a judgment that Actavis’s NDA submission was an act of infringement and that it should not be making or selling any compound that infringes the Velcade drug until the ‘446 patent has expired.

Millennium is also seeking damages and attorneys’ fees.


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