Galderma Laboratories v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedJanuary 29, 2020
Docket19-2396
StatusUnpublished

This text of Galderma Laboratories v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA (Galderma Laboratories v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA) 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
Galderma Laboratories v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, (Fed. Cir. 2020).

Opinion

Case: 19-2396 Document: 58 Page: 1 Filed: 01/29/2020

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

GALDERMA LABORATORIES, L.P., GALDERMA S.A., GALDERMA SKIN HEALTH S.A., Plaintiffs-Appellants

v.

TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS USA, INC., Defendant-Cross-Appellant ______________________

2019-2396, 2020-1213 ______________________

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware in No. 1:17-cv-01783-RGA, Judge Richard G. Andrews. ______________________

Decided: January 29, 2020 ______________________

JAMIL ALIBHAI, Munck Wilson Mandala, LLP, Dallas, TX, for plaintiffs-appellants. Also represented by KELLY P. CHEN, CHASE COBERN, CHAD RAY, MICHAEL CRAIG WILSON; EVAN D. DIAMOND, GERALD J. FLATTMANN, JR., VANESSA YEN, King & Spalding LLP, New York, NY.

JOHN C. O’QUINN, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Washington, DC, for defendant-cross-appellant. Also represented by WILLIAM H. BURGESS; LEORA BEN-AMI, New York, NY. Case: 19-2396 Document: 58 Page: 2 Filed: 01/29/2020

______________________

Before MOORE, O’MALLEY, AND STOLL, Circuit Judges. O’MALLEY, Circuit Judge. This patent infringement suit arises from the filing of Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.’s (“Teva’s”) Abbreviated New Drug Application (“ANDA”) No. 210019. In its ANDA, Teva seeks approval to market a generic version of Soolantra®, a pharmaceutical product marketed by Plain- tiffs Galderma Laboratories, L.P., Galderma S.A., and Nestlé Skin Health S.A. (collectively, “Galderma”). Follow- ing a bench trial, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware entered final judgment for Teva, holding that the asserted claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 9,089,587 (“the ’587 pa- tent”); 9,233,117 (“the ’117 patent”); and 9,233,118 (“the ’118 patent”) were invalid for anticipation under 35 U.S.C. § 102. Galderma appeals from the district court’s judg- ment. Following entry of judgment, Galderma sought and obtained from the district court an injunction pending ap- peal pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 62(d). Teva cross-appeals from the district court’s injunction or- der. For the reasons discussed below, we reverse and re- mand the district court’s judgment and dismiss as moot Teva’s cross-appeal. 1

1 Given the parties’ detailed briefing of these issues in connection with Teva’s motion to stay the injunction or- der (addressed below), the straightforward nature of the is- sues presented, and the need to resolve this dispute and return it to the district court expeditiously, we see no value in scheduling oral argument in this case. Accordingly, we proceed to rule on this appeal on the papers. Case: 19-2396 Document: 58 Page: 3 Filed: 01/29/2020

GALDERMA LABS., L.P. v. TEVA PHARM. USA, INC. 3

I. BACKGROUND A. The Claimed Technology Galderma is the holder of approved New Drug Applica- tion (“NDA”) No. 206255 for Soolantra®, a topical pharma- ceutical formulation containing 1% ivermectin. Soolantra® is indicated for the treatment of inflammatory lesions of rosacea, a skin disorder characterized by facial flushing and redness. The patents-in-suit are listed in the Orange Book for Soolantra® and are directed to methods of treating papulopustular rosacea (“PPR”), using topical ivermectin compositions. PPR, a subtype of rosacea, is a chronic inflammatory disorder that results in facial pap- ules and pustules and is characterized by the presence of inflammatory lesions. Soolantra®, approved by the FDA in 2014, is the first ever ivermectin-based treatment for rosacea. Galderma asserted the following claims at trial: claim 12 of the ’587 patent; claims 2, 3, and 6 of the ’117 patent; and claims 6, 7, 10, and 11 of the ’118 patent. The asserted claims recite methods of treating inflammatory le- sions of rosacea through topical administration of 1% iver- mectin once daily to patients with inflammatory lesions of rosacea. The claims also recite certain efficacy benchmarks resulting from the treatment methods. These bench marks measure certain parameters, including: (1) lesion count re- duction, i.e., the difference in the number of inflammatory lesions before and after treatment; (2) Investigator’s Global Assessment (“IGA”) success rate, i.e., the percentage of pa- tients who achieve an IGA of 0 to 1 on a five-point scale of rosacea severity; 2 and, (3) relapse-free time, i.e., the time period between a patient’s IGA success rate of 0 or 1 to the

2 The five-point scale characterizes rosacea severity as follows: 0 (clear), 1 (almost clear), 2 (mild), 3 (moderate), and 4 (severe). ’587 patent, Table 1. Case: 19-2396 Document: 58 Page: 4 Filed: 01/29/2020

patient’s first reoccurrence of an IGA of 2 or more. See ’587 patent, 6:63–7:25. The claimed efficacy benchmarks are: (1) ‘a significant reduction in inflammatory lesion count in the subject’ (’587 patent, claim 12; ’118 pa- tent, claims 6, 7, 10, 11); (2) ‘a significant improvement in at least one se- lected from the group consisting of a higher inves- tigator’s global assessment success rate and a delayed time to first relapse in the subject in com- parison to that achieved by topically administering to the subject, twice daily, a second pharmaceutical composition comprising 0.75% by weight metroni- dazole’ (’587 patent, claim 12); (3) ‘as early as 2 weeks after the initial administra- tion of the pharmaceutical composition, a signifi- cant reduction in inflammatory lesion count’ (’117 patent, claims 2, 3, 6; ’118 patent, claims 7, 10, 11); (4) ‘as early as 2 weeks after the initial administra- tion of the pharmaceutical composition, a signifi- cant reduction in inflammatory lesion count,’ ‘wherein the subject has moderate to severe pap- ulopustular rosacea before the treatment,’ and ‘wherein the subject has 15 or more of the inflam- matory lesions before the treatment’ (’117 patent, claim 6); (5) ‘more reduction in inflammatory lesion count in the subject in comparison to that achieved by topi- cally administering to the subject, twice daily, a second pharmaceutical composition comprising 0.75% by weight metronidazole’ (’117 patent, claim 2; ’118 patent, claim 10); and (6) ‘longer relapse-free time of the inflammatory le- sions of rosacea in the subject in comparison to that achieved by twice daily topically administering to Case: 19-2396 Document: 58 Page: 5 Filed: 01/29/2020

GALDERMA LABS., L.P. v. TEVA PHARM. USA, INC. 5

the subject a second pharmaceutical composition comprising 0.75% by weight metronidazole’ (’117 patent, claim 3; ’118 patent, claim 11). Galderma Labs. L.P. v. Teva Pharm. USA, Inc., 390 F. Supp. 3d 582, 590 (D. Del. 2019). The parties agreed that the terms “significant reduc- tion” or “significant improvement” meant “a reduction/im- provement that is statistically significant, not due to chance alone, which has a p-value of 0.05 or less.” J.A. 4374. And they agreed that “time to first relapse” or “re- lapse-free time” meant “the time elapsed between initial successful treatment to an IGA of rosacea of 0 or 1 to the first reoccurrence of the IGA to 2 or more in a subject.” Id. It is undisputed that the Soolantra® formulation nec- essarily achieves the claimed efficacy limitations. B. Procedural History On December 30, 2016, Teva filed its ANDA directed to a generic 1% ivermectin cream. In response to Teva’s par- agraph IV certification asserting that the claims of the pa- tents-in-suit were invalid, unenforceable, and/or not infringed, Galderma filed this suit against Teva, alleging infringement pursuant to 35 U.S.C.

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