Case Law: A Review of Selected Pharmaceutical Patents in the UK Courts during 2021

Abstract

Patents lie at the interface between technology and law. This review provides a summary of four high-profile cases from 2021 in which patents in the pharmaceutical or medical space were litigated in the UK Courts. The first case is a dispute between Teva and Bayer in relation to a patent for a formulation of Teva’s cancer drug, sorafenib tosylate. The second case relates to Alcon’s patent for their glaucoma drug, Travoprost, and the alleged infringement of this patent by a number of generics companies. The third case concerns the validity of several patents belonging to Illuminarelating to labeled modified nucleotides and their use in DNA sequencing methods. The final case relates to a patent for Insulet’s OmniPod® device, the first tubeless insulin pump. The article aims to focus on the technology behind the patents and to provide insight into how science interacts with the law in the context of patent enforcement and infringement.

Keywords

• patents
• infringement
• drug formulations
• glaucoma
• dna sequencing
• insulin pumps