Eli Lilly Takes $20 Million Hit in Patent Infringement Lawsuit

A Texas federal jury awarded German drug manufacturer UroPep $20 million in a patent infringement suit it brought against Eli Lilly.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas found Eli Lilly violated a UroPep patent by marketing Cialis as a treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH.

Eli Lilly filed an sNDA with the FDA in December 2010 proposing the additional use for the erectile dysfunction drug, and the agency approved it the following year.

UroPep claimed in its suit, filed in July 2015, that Eli Lilly infringed on its patent issued in 2014. Eli Lilly argued unsuccessfully that the case should be dismissed because the patent was invalid.