The High Court has handed down judgment in the actions between Amgen Limited, Samsung Bioepis Limited and Alexion Pharmaceuticals finding that, on its proper construction,  Alexion’s European Patent (UK) No. 3,167,888 is not infringed by either of Amgen’s BEKEMV® and Samsung Bioepis’s EPYSLI® eculizumab products.   The Court also concluded that, had they infringed, the Patent would have been invalid for lack of inventive step/obviousness.

The claim was highly unusual as eculizumab had previously had a full term of patent protection extended by way of an SPC which gave eculizumab a full five years of added protection.  However, having appreciated that the original chemical abstract service [CAS] filing of eculizumab was wrong, Alexion sought protection for eculizumab as such, on the basis that it had never in fact formed part of the state of the art.  The facts behind this “extraordinary background” are more fully to be found in the judgment of Mr Justice Meade which can be found here.

Andrew Waugh KC and Katherine Moggridge appeared on behalf of Amgen instructed by Tim Harris of Osborne Clarke.