Teva goes to war with Eli Lilly over migraine breakthrough
Teva sued Eli Lilly yesterday in a bid to protect its IP rights covering “breakthrough treatments for migraine headaches”.
The lawsuit, filed at US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, claimed that Teva’s affiliate company Labrys Biologics had made a major breakthrough in the research of migraine treatment.
“Through years of painstaking study, Labrys made important discoveries concerning the role that calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) plays in migraine headaches,” said the suit.
Labrys then developed a biologic product with an active ingredient, fremanezumab—a humanised monoclonal antibody that targets CGRP.
Teva was assigned Labrys’ US patents 9,884,907 and 9,884,908 to claim priority and, in October last year, Teva submitted a Biologics License Application to the Food and Drug Administration seeking approval to market fremanezumab.
But, Teva claimed, Eli Lilly is seeking to launch its own competing biologic product with the active ingredient galcanezumab, which also targets CGRP.
Teva is now hoping to secure a declaration that Eli Lilly will infringe the Labrys patents and to prevent Eli Lilly from future infringement.
In the US, 39 million people are affected by migraines, according to the Migraine Research Foundation.
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