Teva withdraws Shield patent oppositions
Israeli generics company Teva has withdrawn its oppositions to two patents owned by Shield Therapeutics before the European Patent Office (EPO).
Shield, a pharmaceutical company which focuses on iron deficiency products, announced the withdrawals today, October 19.
Teva has withdrawn its appeal against the EPO’s decision with regard to Shield’s patent number 2,668,175, which covers a “Process for preparing an iron hydroxypyrone”, and its opposition with regard to Shield’s patent number 3,160,951 which covers “Crystalline forms of ferric maltol”.
The withdrawal of the ‘175 appeal means that the April 2019 decision of EPO’s Opposition Division will become final, and the patent will be maintained as amended in March 2019.
The EPO has now confirmed that it has no cause to continue the ‘951 proceedings of its own motion and has cancelled the hearing. The patent is maintained as granted and will continue to provide protection through to October 2035.
Lucy Huntington-Bailey, Shield’s general counsel, said: “We are delighted that the EPO has decided not to continue proceedings following the withdrawal of the opposition by Teva and saw no reason to amend the patent as originally granted.
“This publicly demonstrates the validity of the patent and the strength of the defence that Shield provided to robustly defend its patents.”
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