PTAB to Hold Inter Partes Review of Amgen’s Neupogen Patents

The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeals Board (PTAB) has agreed to conduct an inter partes review of two of Amgen’s patents on the chemotherapy drug Neupogen (filgrastim).

Kashiv BioSciences is challenging the patents — on the purification process for proteins in a non-mammalian system — on the grounds that they are invalid due to obviousness.

Kashiv claimed that the patents (8,940,878 and 9,643,997) are obvious to anyone with at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent in biochemistry or chemical engineering, with “several years’ experience in biochemical manufacturing, protein purification, and protein refolding.”