Drugmakers Support Sequenom’s Position on Patent Eligibility

Five companies are throwing their support behind Sequenom’s efforts to have the U.S. Supreme Court reconsider the limits of patent eligibility.

A joint amicus brief filed April 1 by four drugmakers — Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Eisai and Upsher-Smith Laboratories — along with health care IT firm Etiometry, asks the court to revisit a decision invalidating a Sequenom patent for a prenatal diagnostic test.

They contend that ground rules the court has set for determining a patent’s viability are unnecessary and could endanger future patents.