Lawsuits with Foreign Pharmaceutical Companies
South Korean pharmaceutical companies are winning a series of cases against foreign pharmaceutical companies. For example, the Seoul Central District Court recently ruled in favor of Dongkook Pharm in its patent infringement lawsuit against Bayer.
Two years ago, Dongkook Pharm released a generic injection drug containing calcobutrol and then Bayer filed the suit. “Bayer’s patent is not the only one with which high-purity calcobutrol can be produced,” the court explained, adding, “The two companies’ production methods are common only in the final stage and differ from each other in every preceding stage.”
Court rulings that deny the validity of foreign pharmaceutical companies’ patents are coming out one after another, too. Last year, the 19 South Korean companies including Kukje Pharma and Chong Kun Dang obtained a ruling to that end from the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board with regard to AstraZeneca’s patent related to its diabetes drug Farxiga. Although the U.K. company lodged an appeal, the patent court turned down the appeal on Oct. 30 this year.
Late last year, the Seoul Central District Court ruled against Pfizer and Bristol Myers Squibb in their suit against Yuhan. The plaintiffs claimed that Yuhan might infringe upon their patent rights in relation to the Eliquis anticoagulant. The court ruled that the invention is a selection invention, which is supposed to be substantially different from a prior invention either qualitatively or quantitatively, and the inventive step of the invention is denied.