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US Court Of Appeals For Federal Circuit Grants ARIAD Petition For Rehearing En Banc

PBR Staff Writer Published 24 August 2009

Also vacates its April 2009 decision on Eli Lilly's appeal

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and its co-plaintiffs have announced that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has granted their petition for rehearing en banc, and has vacated its April 2009 decision in the appeal that Eli Lilly filed in 2008.

The company said that all 12 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 US Patent No. 6,410,516, licensed to ARIAD by Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.

The company said that in 2006, the jury in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiffs. The jury found that the claims of the NF-kB patent asserted in the lawsuit are valid and infringed by Lilly with respect to its osteoporosis drug, Evista and septic shock drug, Xigris.

The company said that jury awarded damages to the plaintiffs based on US sales of these two drugs through the year 2019, when the patent expires. The jury verdict was then upheld in 2007 by Judge Rya Zobel of the District Court.

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