Lack Of Efficacy Data In Prior Art Defeats Invalidity Challenges

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court decision that the asserted claims directed towards the anti-epileptic drug lacosamide were not invalid based on obviousness-type double patenting, obviousness or anticipation. UCB, Inc. v. Accord Healthcare, Inc., Case No. 2018 (Fed. Cir., May 23, 2018) (Stoll, J) (Prost, CJ, dissenting).

UCB owns a patent disclosing and claiming lacosamide, RE 38,551. Lacosamide belongs to a class of compounds known as functional amino acids (FAAs). In particular, lacosamide is an FAA with three chemical groups at positions R, R1 and R3. R is a benzyl group, R1 is a methyl group, and R3 is a nonaromatic methoxymethyl group. Lacosamide also contains only the R enantiomer.