Novartis is suing Regeneron for patent infringement over the manufacturing process used to produce its Eylea and Zaltrap eye treatments. According to the lawsuit filed with the US District Court, Novartis is claiming Regeneron has infringed on Lucentis' patents.
“Regeneron’s method of manufacturing the recombinant fusion protein active ingredient used in both Eylea and Zaltrap meet every element of claim 1 of the ‘688 patent,” Novartis states, including the non-human mammalian host cell expression system, an upstream SV40 origin of replication, and a downstream SV40 polyadenylation region.
In a statement, Regeneron claims that Novartis’s patent had expired on 18 November 2014 and it intends to “vigorously defend against this litigation.”