UK High Court rules against Lilly in Alimta vitamin regimen patent lawsuit

The UK High Court decided the Alimta (pemetrexed disodium) vitamin regimen patent held by US pharma major Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) would not presently be infringed by Actavis marketing pemetrexed trometamol in the UK, France, Italy and Spain with instructions to dilute the product only with dextrose solution.

In June of 2015, the UK Court of Appeal held that Lilly's patent would be indirectly infringed by Actavis (the generics business of Allergan; NYSE: AGN) marketing certain alternative salt forms of pemetrexed with instructions to dilute the product with saline solution. However, the Court of Appeal left open the question of whether an alternative salt form with instructions to dilute only in dextrose solution would infringe.

The court based its decision of non-infringement on Actavis complying with its stated intentions as to how it will market its product and certain circumstances not changing over the remaining life of the patent. In its decision, the UK court accepts that it is not able to predict what will happen in the future and expressly allows either party to ask for the decision to be revisited if there is a material change of circumstances at any point in the remaining life of the patent, which expires in June 2021.