By Sherri Oslick --
Late last week, Magistrate Judge Mary Pat Thynge granted Amgen's motion of summary judgment of non-infringement as to all asserted claims in Amgen Inc. v. ARIAD Pharmaceuticals Inc., Civil Action No. 06-cv-00259 (D. Del). At issue was Amgen's Enbrel® (etanercept, a TNF blocker) product. (Another Amgen product, Kineret® -- anakinra, an IL-1 receptor antagonist -- was previously accused of infringement as well, but ARIAD later withdrew its assertion of infringement against this product).
The case was originally filed by Amgen in April 2006 as a declaratory judgment action of non-infringement and invalidity of U.S. Patent No. 6,410,516 ("Nuclear Factors Associated with Transcriptional Regulation," issued June 25, 2002), directed to certain aspects of the NF-kB transcription factor pathway. An amended complaint was filed in April 2007 adding a charge of inequitable conduct; the amended complaint was answered with ARIAD's counterclaims of infringement of the '516 patent.
Judge Thynge's ruling was based primarily on the testimony of ARIAD's expert in view of the claim construction of the term "reducing NF-kB activity in [the] cells." The Court construed this claim limitation, in accordance with Amgen's proposal, as meaning "taking action inside cells to directly inhibit (interfere or block) an NF-kB activity." Relying on testimony by ARIAD's expert that Enbrel® acts only extracellularly, and that she could not think of an infringement argument in the event the Court adopted Amgen's claim construction, Judge Thynge concluded that there was no issue of material fact concerning ARIAD's infringement claims against Amgen.
For additional information regarding this and other related topics, please see:
• ARIAD's press release
• "Amgen Granted Leave to Introduce New Claims of Inequitable Conduct Against ARIAD," February 7, 2008
• "Good News, Bad News for ARIAD in NF-kB Case," July 10, 2007
• "Court Report," April 23, 2007
• "ARIAD Files Infringement Claim Against Amgen and Wyeth," April 17, 2007
• "Setback for Ariad in Dispute with Amgen," January 9, 2007
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