Teva has seen its chances of success in a long-running US legal battle over “skinny-label” generics given a major boost, after the US solicitor general emphatically supported the firm’s position as it seeks a Supreme Court review of litigation over induced-infringement claims made by GlaxoSmithKline.
The case – which holds wider significance for all generics that carve out patented indications under the US “section viii” pathway – has over the years proceeded through the district and appeals courts, with GSK ultimately seeing reinstated an early jury finding of infringement and a $235m damages award from 2017, based on Teva’s generic version of Coreg (carvedilol) that carved out a congestive heart failure indication protected by GSK’s reissued US patent RE40,000