Eli Lilly wins UK Alimta drug patent case on appeal

[June 25, 2015]  LONDON (Reuters) - Eli Lilly has won a patent case in the Court of Appeal in London over its blockbuster Alimta lung cancer drug, boosting prospects for future sales and dealing a blow to generic challenger Actavis.

Alimta generated worldwide sales of $2.79 billion for Lilly last year, making the medicine its biggest-selling product.

The verdict, which reverses a 2014 decision by the English High Court, will also apply to France, Italy and Spain under a legal system of corresponding declarations.

The London appeals court ruled Actavis's plan to market certain alternative salt forms of Alimta, known generically as pemetrexed, after the basic patent on the medicine expires in December 2015 would indirectly infringe another Lilly patent.

The additional patent is valid to 2021 and covers the administration of two nutrients, folic acid and vitamin B12, that are given to patients before and while they receive Alimta to prevent side effects.

The U.S. drugmaker said on Thursday that the latest ruling "increases the likelihood that the vitamin regimen patents for Alimta will provide exclusivity in the UK, France, Italy and Spain through June 2021".

In Germany, by contrast, the argument has gone against Lilly, following a decision in March by an appeal court there that Actavis would not infringe Lilly's patent if it sold its product after December 2015.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Jason Neely)

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