Court slaps 30 mln dollars on Lupin for Patent Infringement

In a Patent infringement case between Lupin’s Australian arm, Generic Health and Byers Pharmaceuticals, the Federal Court of Australia has directed the Lupin pharmaceuticals to pay an amount of 30 million dollars to Bayer Pharmaceuticals for marketing of Isabelle in Australian market against Bayer's patent contraceptive called Yasmin.

The Australian federal Court pointed out that selling the same product without the permission of the patent holder is against the law. When

Business Standard contacted to Lupin pharmaceuticals, they declined to answer.

The Bayer pharmaceuticals alleged that Contraceptive pill, which marketed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals faced loss of revenue due to the Generic Health's Isabelle.

By observing the facts and data, the Curt court observed that for Bayer, every sale of Isabelle affected the sale of Yasmin. In order to fill those loss of revenue gaps, Bayer sought only damages against seeking a portion of the profits made by the company on the sale of Isabelle in the Australian market.

Bayer’s initial suit against Generic Health was for infringement of its Australian patent, for sale of competing product Isabelle. However, during the proceedings in 2012, Bayer amended the claims of the patent, reports BS

Praising the court's decision, Global portal for patent news Lexology.com said, “This sets a new benchmark in Australia for future damages claims against generic manufacturers. The court’s willingness to adequately compensate the patent holder enhances Australia’s already very attractive “value proposition” for patentees.”

A similar case was reported last year notes Business Standard where Horizon Pharma, a US-based drug company, filed a case against Lupin pharma in the Mumbai-headquartered pharmaceutical company in the District Court of New Jersey for filing an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) for a generic version of Pennsaid, an anti-inflammatory non-steroidal drug.

Horizon also asked for monetary benefit, should Lupin be able to sell Penn said two per cent in the US before the patent expires.