Purdue continues OxyContin patent battle
Purdue Pharma has sued Collegium Pharmaceutical, in the latest development in a continuing patent infringement dispute centring on Purdue’s painkiller drug OxyContin (oxycodone).
In a complaint (pdf) filed on Friday, October 6 at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Purdue accused Collegium of infringing two patents through its latest application to enhance its manufacture and sale of painkiller Xtampza (oxycodone).
Collegium’s initial New Drug Application (NDA) was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in April last year. The company began marketing and selling the drug the following June.
In August this year, Collegium filed a supplemental NDA with the FDA seeking to enhance the drug. The supplemental NDA claimed to not infringe any of Purdue’s patents.
However, in its October 6 complaint Purdue contested the claim, citing US patents 9,522,919 and 9,073,933.
Both patents relate to “Improved oxycodone hydrochloride compositions and pharmaceutical formulations”.
OxyContin is an opioid pain medication. Opioids produce morphine-like effects.
In total Purdue has filed six complaints against Massachusetts-based Collegium, three before initial FDA approval and three following it. The latest complaint does not specify the status of the previous lawsuits.
In its most recent complaint Purdue said it is seeking a judgment that the manufacture and sale of the drug infringes its patents and that Collegium should be banned from making or selling the product until the patents have expired.
The complaint also calls for damages and attorneys’ fees.
Despite taking action to defend its drug, Purdue has been hit by its own problems in relation to the painkiller. Both Washington state and the city of Seattle have filed separate complaints against the Connecticut-based drug maker for allegedly downplaying the addictiveness of its drugs.
Reuters reported last month that Purdue had been accused of deceptive marketing of OxyContin and of convincing doctors and the public that its drugs had a low risk of addiction.
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