The jury in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts has found in favour of the Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and its co-plaintiffs in their lawsuit against Eli Lilly and Company alleging infringement of the plaintiffs' pioneering US patent covering methods of treating human disease by regulating NF-(kappa)B cell-signalling activity. The jury ruled unanimously in favour of the plaintiffs in finding that the claims of the NF-(kappa)B patent asserted in the lawsuit are valid and infringed by Lilly with respect to Lilly's osteoporosis drug, Evista, and septic shock drug, Xigris.
The co-plaintiffs are Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, and The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
The jury awarded damages to the plaintiffs in the amount of approximately $65.2 million, based on the jury's determination of a reasonable royalty rate of 2.3% to be paid by Lilly to the plaintiffs based on US sales of Evista and Xigris from filing of the lawsuit on June 25, 2002 through February 28, 2006. The jury awarded further damages on an ongoing basis, in amounts to be determined, equal to 2.3% of US sales of Evista and Xigris through the year 2019, when the patent expires.
"We are extremely pleased with the jury's verdict supporting our assertions regarding Lilly's infringement of our patent and its validity. This finding coincides with the twentieth anniversary of the discovery of NF-(kappa)B by the research groups led by Professors David Baltimore, Phillip Sharp and Tom Maniatis and highlights the importance of their pioneering discoveries," said Harvey J. Berger, chairman and chief executive officer of Ariad.
Dr. Berger added, "While Lilly has the right to challenge the verdict in the trial court and on appeal, and certain limited issues relating to validity and enforceability of our patent remain pending before the judge, we are confident that we will prevail in the trial court and the verdict will be upheld by the appeals court, if Lilly files an appeal."