Debiopharm wins Elplat patent infringement suit in Japan

Switzerland-based biopharma company Debiopharm says that the Tokyo District Court granted Debiopharm an overall victory for the first instance demanding the suspension of patent infringement of the formulation patent owned by Debiopharm (Patent No 4430229) related to cancer drug Elplat (oxaliplatin) Drip Infusion of 50, 100 and 200mg.

The Court ruled that the sale of the generic version of the cancer drug by Japanese drugmaker Nippon Kayaku (TYO: 4272) infringed Debiopharm's Japanese patent.

Debiopharm filed a patent infringement law suit with the Tokyo District Court on May 8th, 2015 against Nippon Kayaku, the distributor of the generic version of Elplat treatment. In accordance with this judgement, a provisional disposition order was issued for the company to suspend the distribution of products. Twelve other pending infringement actions were also filed by Debiopharm against all the generics companies that started to commercialize their generic version of Elplat in 2015.