Dragotti & Associati wins quetiapine PI case in Accord vs. AstraZeneca
With an order issued on April 1, 2015, the Specialized Section of the Turin Court confirmed that no preliminary injunctions can be granted against Accord, since AstraZeneca’s European patent EP907364B1 would prima facie lack inventive step.
Accord was represented by Gianpaolo Di Santo, from the law firm Pavia & Ansaldo, who was assisted by the technical experts Roberto Pistolesi (Dragotti & Associati) and Andrea Cipriani.
The Turin Court accepted the arguments developed by Accord on a series of aspects such as, to cite the most important ones: (i) interpretation of prior art; (ii) importance of compliance in the psychiatric field; (iii) relevance of the existence of other antipsychotics developed in sustained release form even prior to their marketing; (iv) relevance of prior art documents such as SAFARI and EURAND to point towards the patented solution; (v) problem invention doctrine not applicable for AstraZeneca’s patent; (vi) HPMC as a very much suitable candidate to realize a sustained release version of quetiapine.
This order totally confirms the order issued on January 13, 2015, in the first instance precautionary case, when several discussion hearings were held and the technical experts were successfully cross-examined by the Judge.
See also:
http://www.accord-healthcare.eu/turin-court-rejected-astrazeneca-reclamo-appeal-quetiapine-sr