Global pharmaceutical firm Pfizer is mulling an application to stay a lawsuit by Merck Sharp & Dohme seeking to invalidate a patent related to the blockbuster Prevnar 13 vaccine as it awaits the outcome of similar proceedings in the US.
Merck Sharp & Dohme has claimed ownership of a Pfizer patent related to the blockbuster Prevnar 13 vaccine, after a doctor who moved between the pharmaceutical companies and is listed as an author on the patent allegedly accessed confidential Merck documents before jumping ship to Pfizer.
Pharmaceutical giant Wyeth has shot down arguments by rival Merck Sharp & Dohme that its Prevnar 13 vaccine lacked inventiveness, saying during the closing submissions of a high-stakes patent trial that up until it developed the top-selling shot scientists thought there was a “ceiling” of 11 types of pneumococcal bacteria that could be included in a single vaccine.
Claims by Wyeth that its patented Prevnar 13 pneumococcal vaccine was inventive because other pharmaceutical giants had failed in developing similar vaccines are based on “hearsay and speculation,” Merck Sharp & Dohme told the court during closing submissions in the high-stakes trial over the world’s best-selling vaccine.
The Full Federal Court has shot down a challenge by Japanese electronics company Nichia Corp. to a ruling that Arrow Electronics did not infringe its patent for a white light emitting device.
Pharmaceutical giant Wyeth has accused Merck Sharp & Dohme of a “baseless” patent invalidity case, saying on the second day of trial over the world’s best selling vaccine that the development of its patented Prevnar 13 pneumococcal shot was anything but obvious, as its rival contends.
A showdown between global pharmaceutical giants over the world’s best selling vaccine began Monday in Federal Court, with Merck Sharp & Dohme claiming three patents for Prevnar 13 sold by Pfizer’s Wyeth are invalid and that its own vaccine offers greater protection against pneumococcal bacteria.