BRIEF—Patents asserted against Darzalex in USA declared invalid

The US District Court of Delaware has declared the three US patents (Nos 8,263,746, 9,200,061, and 9,758,590), asserted by MorphoSys against Danish biotech Genmab and Genmab’s collaboration partner Janssen Biotech are invalid by summary judgment.

The patent infringement lawsuit was initiated by Germany-based MorphoSys against Genmab and Janssen in April 2016 asserting that activities with Darzalex (daratumumab) in the USA infringe its US patents, and the case has been pending before the US District Court of Delaware.

Janssen’s parent company Johnson & Johnson posted full-year 2018 sales of multiple myeloma drug Darzalex of $2.03 billion, up 63% on 2017.

The summary judgment order declared all three patents invalid due to lack of enablement.

As a result of this decision, the jury trial scheduled for February 2019 will not take place.

MorphoSys has the opportunity to appeal the district court decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC).

In addition, during the case a further claim by Janssen and Genmab was included in the case that the three MorphoSys patents were unenforceable due to inequitable conduct by MorphoSys.

That issue remains to be decided.