On September 29, 2023, Venable scored a victory for client Novartis in Delaware by allowing its patent suit there against generic drug manufacturers Noratech and MSN to proceed.
The suit in question, District of Delaware Civil Action No. 22-1395, concerns Noratech’s and MSN’s alleged infringement of Novartis’s U.S. Patent No. 11,096,918 (“the '918 patent”). In late 2022 Noratech filed a Rule 12 motion to dismiss Novartis’s ’918 patent infringement allegations against it; in May 2023 MSN filed a Rule 12 motion for judgment on the pleadings. In a 10-page memorandum opinion dated September 29, 2023, Judge Andrews denied both Noratech’s and MSN’s motions. In denying the motions, Judge Andrews credited Novartis’s arguments stating that its infringement allegations were sufficient to survive Rule 12, given that a protective order barred Novartis from pleading infringement in greater detail, and key information concerning the accused products lay primarily in Noratech’s and MSN’s control.
Novartis was represented in these proceedings by Christopher Loh, Jared Stringham, Nick Kallas, Christina Schwarz, Carrie Park, and Erin Belfield.