Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

What I'm asking is this: is the expiration date a verifiable fact, or a supposition?

The May 24, 2014 expiration date of the seven Copaxone patents in the Orange Book is a verifiable fact—see http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/ob/docs/patexclnew.cfm?Appl_No=020622&Product_No=002&table1=OB_Rx .

The two non-Orange-Book Copaxone patents in the litigation between Teva and NVS/MNTA are the 5,800,808 and the 6,048,898 (#msg-54113660). These two patents expire on the same date as the seven Orange-Book patents because they are continuations of the same original patent application (U.S. Ser. No. 08/248,037, filed May 24, 1994) as the seven Orange-Book patents (#msg-54677508).

Just to be sure, at MNTA’s annual shareholders’ meeting in June I asked whether the two non-Orange-Book patents being litigated added any leverage to Teva’s case over and above the seven Orange-Book patents. The answer was No.