Hello, everyone. 'Tis a sunny day here on the Pharmalot corporate campus, the perfect elixir to the middle-of-the-week hurdles. What will today bring? We can only guess, but to steel ourselves, we have brewed our usual ritual - a cup of stimulation. Pour one yourself or grab a water bottle and dig in. Hope your day goes well...
Merck To Appeal Temodar Patent Loss To Teva (Philly.com)
Abbott Labs' 2010 Forecast Exceeds Expectations (Reuters)
Pain Pumps Linked To Chondrolysis (The New York Times)
Virginia Gov Proposes Biotech Funding (Washington Business Journal)
Pfizer Compensates Nigerian Trovan Victims (AllAfrica)
Gilead Sciences Profit Rises 43 Percent (Bloomberg News)
Class Decertification In Neurontin Case Upheld (Legal Intelligencer)
1 Comment
On the Merck-Teva Temodar patent story (above):
It is worth noting that federal District Court Judge Sue L. Robinson (a very able Delaware judge) found that Merck's predecessor/reverse merger partner, Schering-Plough, engaged -- in part, in "inequitable conduct" (imagine that!) -- essentially attempting to deceive the United States Patent and Trademark authorities, in the way it wholly-ignored its own '291 patent papers for a decade, and failed to point out important information in them to the examiner.
That sort of a "gaming the patent application process" finding is extremely rare -- at least in a "big pharma" case. So, I think this one will stand on appeal -- and Teva will be selling generic Temodar, soon (Q2 2010).
Fast Freddie Hassan sure pulled one over on Dick Clark -- was Schering-Plough really worth $41 billion? I dunno, but consider: Cipro, Temodar, Vicriviroc (SCH 417690) and Vertex's Telaprevir besting Boceprevir -- just to name a few flops, here. [Each link has the background -- on the flop.] Ouch.
Namaste