Published on August 24, 2009 at 8:39 AM
ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARIA) and its co-plaintiffs today announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (the “Federal Circuit”) has granted their petition for rehearing en banc and has vacated its April 2009 decision in the appeal that Eli Lilly and Co. filed in 2008. All twelve judges of the Federal Circuit will now rehear and reassess the merits of Lilly’s appeal. This decision by the Federal Circuit concerns a judgment holding Lilly liable for infringement of U.S. Patent No. 6,410,516 (the ‘516 patent) licensed to ARIAD by Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. ARIAD is the exclusive licensee of the technology and patents.
In 2006, the jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts (the “District Court”) ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiffs and found that the claims of the NF-kB patent asserted in the lawsuit are valid and infringed by Lilly with respect to Lilly’s osteoporosis drug, Evista® and Lilly’s septic shock drug, Xigris®. The jury awarded damages to the plaintiffs based on U.S. sales of these two drugs through the year 2019, when the patent expires. The jury verdict was then upheld in 2007 by Judge Rya W. Zobel of the District Court who also found in favor of the plaintiffs.
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