Enbrel summary judgment set aside

Pharmaceutical Business Review reports that Ariad Pharmaceuticals, a US-based oncology company, has announced that the US District Court of Delaware has granted Ariad's motion to permit an immediate appeal of the court's summary judgment ruling of non-infringement by Amgen's drug, Enbrel, of seven claims of US patent number 6,410,516. Giving summary judgment, the court found that the administration of Enbrel falls outside the scope of the asserted claims based on the court's interpretation of these claims to exclude extracellular methods of reducing NF-kappa B activity. The court also cancelled the trial scheduled for November 2008 and administratively closed the case.

Ariad seeks reinterpretation of the asserted patent claims by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit so that Ariad's infringement case against Amgen may be tried by the Delaware Court. Amgen's challenges to the validity and enforceability of the '516 patent claims will not be considered by the Delaware Court until that time.