Last week, in the ongoing Immunex v. Sanofi patent litigation regarding Immunex’s claims of infringement against Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent® (dupilumab) product, Immunex moved to stay the litigation pending resolution of two IPR proceedings the PTAB instituted on February 15, 2018 (IPR2017-01879 and IPR2017-01884) regarding the sole asserted patent: U.S. Patent No. 8,679,487.

Immunex argues that the “early stage of [the] case favors a stay” as trial is more than a year away and that “the IPRs will simplify the issues in [the] case.”  Further, Immunex argues that “there would be no undue prejudice or tactical disadvantage to Defendants” because “Defendants chose to file three IPR petitions to challenge the validity of Immunex’s patent in the Patent Office.” Immunex notes that it “filed this lawsuit to obtain fair compensation for Defendants’ unlicensed use of its intellectual property . . .[and] is not seeking injunctive relief” and accordingly “is willing to accept a modest delay to allow the PTAB to confirm the validity of its patent in exchange for the efficient resolution of its infringement and damages claims in this Court.”

Stay tuned to Big Molecule Watch for further updates.