Summary
As noted in the Mon 23 Mar 2009 press release, Cubist has sued Teva in response to Teva's Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) seeking FDA approval of a generic version of CUBICIN. This patent dispute is critical because, as noted in recent SEC filings, CUBICIN sales account for substantially all of Cubist's revenues. Within the 3 patents-in-suit, 2 patents (US Patent Nos. 6468967 6852689) contain only method claims while the remaining 1 patent (US Reissue Pat. No. 39071) contains compound, composition, formulation, and method claims.
Analysis
Reissue 39071 was pending at the Patent Office for just over 6 years from its initial filing date (11 Apr 2000) to its reissue grant date (18 Apr 2006). Even after this period of time, on 29 Jan 2008, an error in US Reissue Pat. No. 39071 was itself then fixed through a Certificate of Correction (COC). In particular, at 5 locations, including Claims 18 20 26 30, "L-Asn" was corrected to "D-Asn". It is likely Teva, in its fight to invalidate and/or render unenforceable 39071, will attempt to attack some aspect of this correction. This lawsuit is Case 1:09-cv-00189-UNA (judge: not yet assigned, in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware) and Teva's ANDA is No. 91-039.
