On March 13, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a five-year patent term extension (“PTE”) for Merck’s sugammadex patent, holding that the district court had correctly calculated PTE based on the issue date of the original patent rather than the issue date of the reissued patent.[1]
Background
The case
Last week, Mylan N.V. and Biocon Ltd. announced that their jointly-developed insulin glargine biosimilar, Semglee™, received marketing approval from both the European Commission (which applies to all 28 European Union member states) and the European Economic Area member states of Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.[1] Additionally, the Therapeutic Goods Administration approved the biosimilar for use
On August 8, 2017, Sanofi-Aventis (“Sanofi”) filed a patent infringement suit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against Merck Sharp & Dohme (“Merck”) for infringement of U.S Patent Nos. 7,476,652 and 7,713,930. The suit relates to Merck’s insulin glargine vial drug product, a proposed follow-on biologic of Sanofi’s Lantus.
On July 24, 2017, Samsung Bioepis and Merck & Co., Inc. announced the launch of Renflexis® (infliximab-abda) in the United States. According to Merck’s press release, Renflexis® “will be introduced in the U.S. [at] . . . a 35 percent discount to the current list price” of the reference product. Renflexis® is the second FDA-approved
Merck & Co., Inc. (“Merck”) announced last week that the FDA has granted tentative approval for its insulin glargine injection LusdunaTM NexvueTM, a follow-on biologic to Sanofi’s Lantus®. Because Merck’s application for insulin glargine was filed using the abbreviated 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway provided by the Hatch-Waxman Amendments (not a section (k) application