I previously wrote about the
standing issue addressed in Amerigen Pharmaceuticals v. UCB Pharma
GMBH. In this article, I look at the lead compound
analysis that led the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) to
uphold the claims against an obviousness challenge, including a
factor that doesn't always get much attention.
The Patent At Issue
The patent at issue was UCB's U.S. Patent 6,858,650, which
claims the active ingredient of Toviaz® (fesoterodine), an
antimuscarinic drug used to treat urinary incontinence.
Fesoterodine is a prodrug of 5-hydroxymethyl tolterodine (5-HMT),
which itself is a metabolite of tolterodine, which is the active
ingredient of Detrol®, an antimuscarinic drug used to treat
overactive bladder.
