Biotech Values

[zipjet]

No MSJ on inequitable conduct has been filed.

That does not mean one will not be filed.

Further, Sandoz claims that additional facts supporting IC were discovered and has sought leave to amend their IC counterclaim. They would want amendment granted before filing an MSJ on IC. So it may still happen.

IC is inherently fact intensive. MSJ's are not designed resolve material fact issues. So in that sense, the hurdle is set high for an MSJ. But it is not a hurdle that is insurmountable.

Another factor that is not lost on the litigator is that MSJ's may flush out defenses that were not understood from discovery. Thus, even MSJ's that are denied may prove very valuable. They also help prepare the judge for the issues that will come his way.

In my thinking, the basis of Copaxone was known for many years - so many that the first patents (COP1) expired in the mid-1990's. In order to have other patent(s) issue, TEVA needs to show that there was a patentable advance on the technology of the 1970's that formed the first autoimmune treatments. I suspect that the advance was not so novel and unexpected as to be patentable.

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