A Durham marketer and distributer of generic pharmaceuticals is facing allegations that a diabetes drug it intends to sell infringes on patents owned by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of the German pharmaceutical giant Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Boehringer Ingelheim claims Accord Healthcare Inc. has submitted paperwork to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seeking approval to manufacture and sell a generic version of the company’s Jentadueto tablets. The tablets contain linagliptin and metformin, two medicines that are designed to combine and help reduce blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Accord Healthcare specializes in selling generic pharmaceutical products. It has offices in 13 countries around the world. Its U.S. headquarters is based in Durham.
The complaint alleges the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued Boehringer Ingelheim two separate patents in 2014 that cover its Jentadueto products.
Boehringer Ingelheim’s complaint says Accord sent a letter to the company June 30 that allegedly said certain aspects of the patents “are either invalid or will not be infringed by the commercial manufacture, use, or sale of” the Accord product. The complaint denies that alleged claim and argues the Accord product would indeed violate Boehringer Ingelheim’s patents.
Boehringer Ingelheim is seeking a court order directing Accord to stop the alleged infringement. It is also seeking monetary damages. The complaint also names Accord’s Indian parent company Intas Pharmaceuticals, Ltd. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
Boehringer Ingelheim is represented by Alan Ruley of Bell, Davis & Pitt’s Winston-Salem office and Daniel Forchheimer of Kirkland & Ellis in New York. Ruley and Forchheimer were not immediately available for comment.
No attorneys have entered an appearance on behalf of Accord and the company has not yet filed a response to the complaint. Accord declined to comment on the case.
Source: bizjournals.com
