PTAB Sides With Amneal on Obviousness of Purdue’s Oxycontin Patent

The PTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled against a Purdue Pharma patent on OxyContin, agreeing with Amneal Pharmaceuticals on the patent’s obviousness.

In two written decisions, the PTAB concluded that the claimed compositions at issue could be manufactured with “known conventional techniques.”

The District Court for the Southern District of New York had previously concluded the same patent was obvious, because prior art establishes that gelling agents can deter abuse, and that polyethylene oxide can function as a gelling agent and as a check on the rate of release in sustained release dosage forms.