Wednesday market chatter suggested a Federal Circuit Court stayed an inter partes review (“IPR”) pursuant to patents for Allergan’s (AGN) dry eye drug Restasis. AGN rose as over 3% on the news. The IPR was appealed by the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe who Allergan sold the patents to last September.
Federal Circuit stays #Restasis inter partes review proceedings until day after it hears oral arguments (in June) on Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe appeal of #PTAB's decision it does not have sovereign immunity. #IPR $AGN
— Brenda Sandburg (@brendasandburg) March 28, 2018
$AGN WINS STAY OF RESTASIS PATENT REVIEW PENDING APPEAL
— zach (@zbiotech) March 28, 2018
Allergan’s goal was to use the Mohawks’s sovereign immunity to void the IPR. The company had been under siege from Teva (TEVA) and Mylan (MYL), among others. In Q3 2017 the Restasis patents were invalidated due to obviousness by Judge William Bryson, who also expressed serious concerns about the Mohawk deal.
Last month the Patent Trial And Appeal Board (“PTAB”) ruled the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe could not claim sovereign immunity to void an IPR; I assumed it put the Mohawk deal out of its misery:
Upon consideration of the record, and for the reasons discussed below, we determine the Tribe has not established that the doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity should be applied to these proceedings. Furthermore, we determine that these proceedings can continue even without the Tribe’s participation in view of Allergan’s retained ownership interests in the challenged patents. The Tribe’s Motion is therefore denied.
