filed a notice of appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and on January 25, 2021, the plaintiffs filed an appellate brief challenging the March 27, 2020 judgment, the September 9, 2020 judgment, and other court orders. On April 23, 2021, the Company filed a response brief in the Second Circuit appellate proceeding. On May 14, 2021, the plaintiffs filed a reply brief. On December 9, 2021, oral argument was held in the Second Circuit. On June 16, 2022, the Second Circuit entered a summary order affirming the order of the District Court dated September 9, 2020.
Separately, on December 1, 2017, a purported shareholder demand was made on the Company based on substantially the same allegations as those set forth in the securities case above. Also, on January 5, 2018, a follow-on derivative suit, styled Davis v. Pruzanski, et al., was filed in New York state court by shareholder Gregg Davis based on substantially the same allegations as those set forth in the securities case above. The derivative litigation was stayed pending the exhaustion of all appeals relating to the dismissal of the securities case. Following exhaustion of such appeals, on October 7, 2022, the parties stipulated to and agreed to a discontinuance of the derivative suit. The stipulation is currently pending approval by the New York state court.
Patent Litigation
The Company has received paragraph IV certification notice letters from seven generic drug manufacturers indicating that each such manufacturer submitted to the FDA an Abbreviated New Drug Application (“ANDA”) seeking approval to manufacture and sell a generic version of the Company’s 5 mg and 10 mg dosage strengths of Ocaliva® (obeticholic acid) for PBC prior to the expiration of certain patents listed for Ocaliva in the FDA’s Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations (the “Orange Book”).
The seven generic drug manufacturers and when we received their initial paragraph IV certification notices are as follows: (1) Apotex Inc. (“Apotex”) (July 2020), (2) Lupin Limited (“Lupin”) (July 2020), (3) Amneal Pharmaceuticals of New York, LLC, as U.S. agent for Amneal EU Limited (collectively, “Amneal”) (July 2020), (4) Optimus Pharma Pvt Ltd (“Optimus”) (July 2020), (5) MSN Pharmaceuticals Inc. and MSN Laboratories Private Limited (collectively, “MSN”) (July 2020), (6) Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Inc., and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Ltd. (collectively, “Dr. Reddy’s”) (December 2020), and (7) Zenara Pharma Private Limited (“Zenara”) (August 2022).
Each paragraph IV certification notice alleged that the challenged Orange Book patents were invalid, unenforceable, and/or would not be infringed by the commercial manufacture, use, or sale of the generic products described in the generic manufacturer’s respective ANDA. In each case, within 45 days of receipt of the paragraph IV certification notice, the Company initiated a patent infringement suit against the generic manufacturer in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. As a result, under the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (the “Hatch-Waxman Act”), the FDA cannot grant final approval of each generic manufacturer’s ANDA before the earlier of November 27, 2023 (or, for Zenara, February 8, 2025), or a court decision in their favor. The Company has since received additional paragraph IV certification notices from certain of the generic manufacturers challenging additional Ocaliva Orange Book patents, and the Company amended its complaints against the generic challengers accordingly to add infringement allegations in relation thereto.
The challenged Ocaliva Orange Book patents asserted by the Company in the ongoing patent litigations are U.S. Patents Nos. RE 48,286 (the “‘286 Patent”), 9,238,673 (the “‘673 Patent”), 10,047,117 (the “‘117 Patent”), 10,052,337 (the “‘337 Patent”), 10,174,073 (the “‘073 Patent”), 10,751,349 (the “‘349 Patent”), and 10,758,549 (the “‘549 Patent”).
On August 16, 2022, the Company entered into a settlement agreement with Dr. Reddy’s resolving the patent litigation over Dr. Reddy’s ANDA.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Company granted Dr. Reddy’s a non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-transferable, royalty-free license to commercialize its generic version of Ocaliva in the United States commencing on October 26, 2035, or earlier under certain circumstances. The parties filed the settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice pursuant to applicable law and terminated their litigation pursuant to a consent judgment that was approved by the court. Similar patent litigation by the Company against the other ANDA filers remains pending.