The Patent Trial and Appeal Board has granted Apotex’s petition for inter partes review of Amgen’s U.S. Patent 8,952,138, finding that Apotex has a reasonable likelihood in prevailing in its assertions that claims 1-24 are obvious over the prior art.  According to the parties’ filings, the patent covers methods of folding proteins.  As we have reported, the ‘138 patent is also at issue in Amgen Inc. et al. v. Apotex Inc. et al., No. 0:15-CV-61631-JIC/BSS (S.D. Fla.), which is currently on appeal at the Federal Circuit.  The parties refer to this litigation as “The Neulasta Litigation” in their PTAB filings.

The Board’s decision on institution is posted, along with other important PTAB filings on biologic patents, on our IPR tracker page.