SE - Teva, Arrow and Ratiopharm v. Merck (Alendronat)

Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd, Teva Sweden AB, Arrow Läkemedel AB, Arrow Generics Ltd, Ratiopharm AB and ratiopharm GmbH v. Istituto Gentili SpA, MSD Overseas Manufacturing Co (Ireland) and Merck Sharp & Dome Sweden AB, Stockholm District Court, 11 June 2010, Docket Nos. T 16665-04 T 252-05, T 15175-05, T 7337-05, T 15141-05, T 30912-05 and T 13939-05 (joint cases)

In joint infringement and invalidity proceedings, the District Court of Stockholm denied Teva’s, Arrow’s and Ratiopharm’s claims that Merck’s SPC (for the pharmaceutical product Alendronat) was invalid. Consequently, Teva and Arrow were found to have infringed the same SPC. The invalidity action was first initiated by Teva already in October 2004. This judgment was also preceded by a preliminary injunction against Teva and Arrow, prohibiting them to handle generic Alendronat, granted by the Stockholm District Court in February 2006. However, the preliminary injunction was cancelled by the Svea Court of Appeal in October 2006. According to the Svea Court of Appeal, probability of patent infringement had not been shown (with respect to the validity of the basic patent (and thus also the SPC) not having been established as probable).