Bird & Bird wins for Neuraxpharm in proceedings against Biogen over MS drug

The Regional Court Düsseldorf announced a judgment rejecting the request for preliminary injunction (‘PI’) against sales of Neuraxpharm’s generic MS pharmaceutical “Dimethylfumarate Neuraxpharm” in Germany. The PI request filed by Biogen MA, Inc. (“Biogen”) was based on the allegation that the marketing of “Dimethylfumarate Neuraxpharm” in Germany would infringe the German part of the European Patent EP 2 653 873 B1 (“EP’873”).

Based on presented evidence, the Regional Court held that Biogen failed to establish a ground for the grant of the requested PI. In its judgment rejecting the PI request, the Regional Court Düsseldorf questioned the validity of EP’873 and considered it more likely that EP’873 will be revoked for lack of inventive step in the pending EPO opposition proceedings than that it will be upheld. In this regard, the Regional Court assumed that the daily dosage of 480 mg DMF was not inventive.

Biogen has appealed the judgment, however, the team are optimistic that this decision will be upheld and that it will favourably impact similar PI proceedings filed by Biogen in various other countries against the sale of “Dimethylfumarate Neuraxpharm” on the basis of EP’873. The Bird & Bird team was led by Dr. Matthias Meyer (partner, Intellectual Property) and Dr. Daniel Misch (counsel, Intellectual Property) and was completed by Dr. Ingo Ortel and Dr. Bernd Aechter (both of the patent attorney firm Ter Meer Steinmeister, Munich).

Dr. Matthias Meyer, Intellectual Property partner at Bird & Bird, says: “We are very pleased to have been able to advise Neuraxpharm in this landmark case against Biogen. It is particularly good news that we have been able to help Neuraxpharm stay in the German market, even though original manufacturers are often victorious in patent infringement cases”.