Nexus and Nevakar face off over hypotension drug

Nexus Pharmaceuticals and rival Nevakar have gone to court to determine which company has the right to sell a new hypotension drug, which can be administered to patients under anesthesia during surgery.

The lawsuit, filed by Nexus on August 17, relates to the company’s new product Emerphed (ephedrine sulfate), a ready-to-use drug that can raise the blood pressure of a patient experiencing hypotension while under anaesthetic.

Previous US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved ephedrine sulfate products have to be diluted before they can be used, risking delay or contamination, the Nexus complaint stated.

According to the lawsuit, filed at the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, a rival Nevakar product infringes a Nexus patent, US number 11,090,278, issued the same day the lawsuit was filed.

Last October, the FDA approved a new drug application (NDA) filed by Nevakar for a 5 mg/mL ephedrine sulfate product. “The manufacture of [Nevakar’s] NDA product is imminent, and the sale of actual products will be occurring very soon,” Nexus claimed.

Nevakar obtained a patent, US number 10,869,845, for its product in December 2020, after filing it in January that year. In its lawsuit, Nexus also asked the court to declare that it hadn’t infringed the ‘845 patent, which it said is invalid and unenforceable based on “prior art including Nexus’s own ’278 patent”

After its own patent was granted on Tuesday, Nexus chief scientific officer Shahid Ahmed said the company was “very proud of the IP that was created during the development of Emerphed”.

“The granting of this patent is the culmination of many years of scientific development and the hard work of our dedicated team,” Ahmed said.

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