Baxalta Inc. v. Genentech, Inc.

972 F.3d 1341
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedAugust 27, 2020
Docket19-1527
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 972 F.3d 1341 (Baxalta Inc. v. Genentech, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baxalta Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., 972 F.3d 1341 (Fed. Cir. 2020).

Opinion

Case: 19-1527 Document: 59 Page: 1 Filed: 08/27/2020

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

BAXALTA INC., BAXALTA GMBH, Plaintiffs-Appellants

v.

GENENTECH, INC., Defendant-Appellee

CHUGAI PHARMACEUTICAL CO. LTD., Defendant ______________________

2019-1527 ______________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware in No. 1:17-cv-00509-TBD, Circuit Judge Timothy B. Dyk. ______________________

Decided: August 27, 2020 ______________________

WILLIAM R. PETERSON, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Houston, TX, argued for plaintiffs-appellants. Also repre- sented by NATALIE A. BENNETT, Washington, DC; MICHAEL J. ABERNATHY, CHRISTOPHER JOHN BETTI, MARIA DOUKAS, KARON NICOLE FOWLER, SANJAY K. MURTHY, Chicago, IL; JULIE S. GOLDEMBERG, Philadelphia, PA.

ERIC ALAN STONE, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, New York, NY, argued for defendant- Case: 19-1527 Document: 59 Page: 2 Filed: 08/27/2020

appellee. Also represented by ALEXANDER ATKINS, MARISSA DORAN, JENNIFER GORDON, NICHOLAS P. GROOMBRIDGE, NAZ WEHRLI, JOSEPHINE YOUNG; DAVID COLE, KENNETH A. GALLO, Washington, DC. ______________________

Before MOORE, PLAGER, AND WALLACH, Circuit Judges. 1 MOORE, Circuit Judge. Baxalta Inc. sued Genentech, Inc. and Chugai Pharma- ceutical Co. Ltd., 2 alleging infringement of claims 1, 4, 17, and 19 of U.S. Patent No. 7,033,590. On December 3, 2018, the United States District Court for the District of Dela- ware issued a claim construction order, construing the terms “antibody” and “antibody fragment.” Following the claim construction order, the parties stipulated to non-in- fringement of the asserted claims. The district court en- tered judgment based on its claim construction order and the parties’ stipulation. Baxalta appeals the district court’s judgment, arguing the district court’s claim constructions were erroneous. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1). Because the district court erred in construing the terms “antibody” and “antibody fragment,” we vacate the district court’s judgment of non-infringement and remand. I. BACKGROUND Baxalta sued Genentech, asserting that Genentech’s Hemlibra® (emicizumb-kxwh) product used to treat the

1 Judge Stoll recused and took no part in this deci- sion. Judge Plager replaced Judge Stoll on the panel fol- lowing oral argument. 2 Chugai was later voluntarily dismissed from the lawsuit pursuant to a joint stipulation between Chugai and Baxalta. J.A. 15946–47. Case: 19-1527 Document: 59 Page: 3 Filed: 08/27/2020

BAXALTA INC. v. GENENTECH, INC. 3

blood clotting disorder hemophilia infringes claims 1, 4, 17, and 19 of the ’590 patent. Blood clotting occurs in the body through a series of enzymatic activations known as the “co- agulation cascade.” ’590 patent at 1:7–10. One “key step” in the cascade is when an enzyme known as activated clot- ting factor VIII (FVIIIa) complexes with another enzyme known as activated clotting factor IX (FIXa) to form a com- plex that then activates factor X (FX). ’590 patent at 1:17–19. Hemophilia A is a particular form of hemophilia where the activity of factor VIII is functionally absent, thereby impeding the coagulation cascade. This can occur in some Hemophilia A patients because they develop factor VIII inhibitors (i.e., antibodies against factor VIII), which hinder the effectiveness of factor VIII preparations admin- istered as treatments. ’590 patent at 1:24–32. The ’590 patent relates to preparations used to treat hemophilia pa- tients who have developed factor VIII inhibitors. ’590 pa- tent at 2:25–29. The preparations comprise antibodies or antibody fragments that bind to factor IX or factor IXa to increase procoagulant activity of factor IXa to compensate for the decreased factor VIII activity. See, e.g., ’590 patent at 2:29–34. Independent claim 1 and dependent claims 4 and 19 are illustrative and recite: 1. An isolated antibody or antibody fragment thereof that binds Factor IX or Factor IXa and in- creases the procoagulant activity of Factor IXa. 4. The antibody or antibody fragment according to claim 1, wherein said antibody or antibody frag- ment is selected from the group consisting of a monoclonal antibody, a chimeric antibody, a hu- manized antibody, a single chain antibody, a bispecific antibody, a diabody, and di-, oligo- or multimers thereof. 19. The antibody or antibody fragment according to claim 4, wherein the antibody is a humanized anti- body. Case: 19-1527 Document: 59 Page: 4 Filed: 08/27/2020

The parties disputed the construction of the terms “an- tibody” and “antibody fragment,” among other terms not at issue on appeal. Generally, antibodies are Y-shaped struc- tures comprising two heavy chains (H chains) and two light chains (L chains). An antibody that has two identical H chains and two identical L chains is called “monospecific” because each H-L chain pair binds the same antigen. Bispecific antibodies, like Genentech’s product Hemlibra® (emicizumb-kxwh), have different heavy chains and/or dif- ferent light chains, allowing them to bind two different an- tigens. Baxalta argued “antibody” should be construed as “[a] molecule having a specific amino acid sequence com- prising two heavy chains (H chains) and two light chains (L chains).” Genentech argued “antibody” should instead be construed as “[a]n immunoglobulin molecule, having a specific amino acid sequence that only binds to the antigen that induced its synthesis or very similar antigens, consist- ing of two identical heavy chains (H chains) and two iden- tical light chains (L chains).” The district court determined that “the term antibody standing alone without other structural terms can have dif- ferent meanings to those skilled in the art,” and that both Baxalta’s and Genentech’s proposed constructions were ac- ceptable definitions. Baxalta Inc. v. Genentech, Inc., No. 17-509, 2018 WL 6304351, at *4 (D. Del. Dec. 3, 2018). It determined, however, that the patentee “chose [Genen- tech’s] narrower definition” by expressly defining antibod- ies in column 5 of the patent, which states: Antibodies are immunoglobulin molecules having a specific amino acid sequence which only bind to an- tigens that induce their synthesis (or its immuno- gen, respectively) or to antigens (or immunogens) which are very similar to the former. Each immu- noglobulin molecule consists of two types of poly- peptide chains. Each molecule consists of large, identical heavy chains (H chains) and two light, also identical chains (L chains). Case: 19-1527 Document: 59 Page: 5 Filed: 08/27/2020

BAXALTA INC. v. GENENTECH, INC. 5

Id. at *5 (quoting ’590 patent at 5:56–63). Although the district court recognized that the ’590 pa- tent claims and discloses “bispecific antibodies, which do not have identical heavy and light chains,” and IgM and IgA antibodies, which “can have more than two heavy chains and more than two light chains,” it determined that these claimed embodiments were “antibody derivatives” ra- ther than “antibodies.” Id. at *5–6. The district court like- wise dismissed the “inconsisten[cy]” between Genentech’s definition of “antibody” and “at least dependent claims 4 and 19” as insufficient to overcome what it considered to be the definitional language of column 5. Id. at *11. The dis- trict court therefore adopted Genentech’s construction, construing “antibody” as “an immunoglobulin molecule, having a specific amino acid sequence that only binds to the antigen that induced its synthesis or very similar anti- gens, consisting of two identical heavy chains (H chains) and two identical light chains (L chains).” Id. at *12.

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