On October 5, 2020, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of Venable Fitzpatrick’s client Novartis AG against petitioner Argentum Pharmaceutical LLC in IPR2016-01479. In its final written decision, the Board determined that the petitioner failed to show that any of the challenged claims 1-3 of U.S. Patent No. 9,006,224 (“the ’224 patent”) are unpatentable. The ’224 patent is directed to the use of Novartis’s Afinitor® (everolimus) product to treat advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors after failure of cytotoxic chemotherapy.
Agreeing with Novartis, the Board determined that the petitioner had not shown in the prior art a reasonable expectation of success of using everolimus to treat advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors after failure of cytotoxic chemotherapy based on the record as a whole.
Novartis was represented by Venable Fitzpatrick attorneys Nicholas Kallas, Christina Schwarz, Jared Stringham, Laura Fishwick, and Chris Loh.