The German Federal Patent Court found the German part of the Eli
Lilly patent, EP 1 313 508 B in the first instance to be void. An
appeal against this decision has now been filed at the German
Federal Court of Justice.
Few patents have led to such a large number of landmark
decisions as have resulted from the Eli Lilly patent for
pemetrexed. This run is continuing due to the aforementioned appeal
which is being lodged at Germany's highest civil court.
After surviving opposition proceedings at the EPO, the validity
of the patent in Germany has been challenged, and the first
instance decision went in favour of the generic companies. The EPO
found that the skilled person would have no motivation to use
pemetrexed in combination with vitamin B12 to reduce the toxic
effects of pemetrexed. The judges at the German Federal Patent
Court saw things differently and concluded that there are ample
pointers in the prior art to arrive at the claimed combination. In
particular,
