Allergan announced that it lost its patent appeal in its attempt to protect its Combigan eye drug from generic competition posed by Novartis’ Sandoz division.
According to Allergan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas’ earlier decision that the Sandoz generic rival did not infringe two of Allergan’s patents and reversed a decision on a third patent in favor of Novartis.
Allergan and Sandoz are still involved in an another lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in which Allergan asserts that Sandoz' proposed generic product infringes an additional patent listed in the Orange Book for Combigan that expires in April 2022.
Allergan received FDA approval in 2007 for Combigan to help reduce elevated intraocular pressure for patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension. In 2017, Combigan represented 3 percent of Allergan's total revenue, making it the drugmaker's 7th best-selling drug.
Recently, Allergan has been taking extreme measures to protect its eye drug patents, including transferred patents on its blockbuster dry eye medicine, Restasis, to the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe in an attempt to shield the company's patents in administrative proceedings
Read the Combigan press release
