Gilead Prevails in Antiviral Patent Challenge

A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of Gilead Sciences, rejecting the Regents of the University of Minnesota’s claim the drugmaker violated the university’s patent protections for sofosbuvir, a Hepatitis C antiviral branded as Sovaldi, among others.

In the original complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in August 2016, the Regents alleged that Gilead infringed on its sofosbuvir by selling drugs containing the active ingredient, which beyond Sovaldi includes the chronic Hepatitis C combination branded medications Harvoni and Epclusa.

But in Monday’s ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a panel of three judges upheld a previous decision from U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board against the Regents. Like the patent board, the circuit judges deemed aspects of the university’s patent written description insufficient to support its patent claims.

Gilead said the ruling “validates our position that the University of Minnesota did not invent sofosbuvir and its patent is invalid.”