God loves a trier, as the old saying goes, and few could accuse Viatris Inc. of not digging deep in its lengthy bid to find a way around US patents shielding Merck & Co’s sitagliptin-containing medicines, Januvia (sitagliptin) and Janumet (sitagliptin/metformin).
After two bites at the cherry – the first a failed challenge to the validity of certain claims of Merck’s sitagliptin dihydrogen phosphate salt patent in an inter parties review before the US Patent Office and Trademark Office; the second a failed challenge against two patents in Hatch-Waxman proceedings – Viatris has alongside Merck notified