By Suresh Pillai --
King Pharmaceuticals' Patents on SKELAXIN® Invalidated By District Court
In the case of King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Eon Labs, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York invalidated two of the King patents at issue in the case, U.S. Patent Nos. 6,407,128 and 6,683,102 as part of its ruling on a motion for summary judgment filed by Eon Labs, Inc. The two patents at issue relate to the King drug SKELAXIN® (metaxalone).
Although the District Court ruled on the validity of these two patents, the Order invalidating the patents is unrelated to King's litigation against Eon successor Sandoz, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey regarding U.S. Patent No. 7,122,566, another member of the SKELAXIN® patent family (see "Court Report," December 14, 2008). While this patent is currently listed in the Orange Book, the FDA has not approved any ANDA covering the patent to Sandoz for the marketing of a generic version of SKELAXIN®. King Pharmaceuticals is headquartered in Bristol, TN and Sandoz, Inc. is headquartered in Holzkirchen, Germany.
Settlement Announced in Lotrel® Lawsuit
IP Law 360 reported last week that both Woodcliff Lake, N.J.-based Par Pharmaceutical and Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis have moved to dismiss a patent suit over Par's marketing of a generic version of Lotrel® (amlodipine besylate/benazepril hydrochloride, used to treat hypertension), a Novartis product (see "Court Report," February 19, 2007). The suit, first filed in October 2006 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, commenced when Novartis claimed that Par's ANDA covering a generic version of Lotrel® infringed a Novartis patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,162,802. The stipulation signed as a result of the 
dismissal was silent as to the existence of any type of settlement in the case.
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