AstraZeneca on Wednesday convinced a federal judge in Delaware to throw out a jury’s decision that the company owes $107.5 million for infringing cancer-drug patents belonging to Pfizer subsidiary Wyeth.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly determined that the two patents Pfizer accused AstraZeneca of infringing with its blockbuster lung-cancer drug Tagrisso were invalid.
Spokespeople for Pfizer and AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the decision.
New York-based Pfizer, which acquired Wyeth in 2009, sued AstraZeneca in 2021. It said that AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso infringed patents related to the breast-cancer drug Nerlynx, which Puma Biotechnology makes with a license to Pfizer’s patents.
Tagrisso earned UK-based AstraZeneca nearly $5.8 billion in revenue last year, according to a company report.
A jury agreed with Pfizer in May and awarded the company $107.5 million in damages. Kennelly ruled for AstraZeneca on Wednesday, finding that the verdict could not stand because the patents lacked valid written descriptions of their inventions and would not enable an ordinary scientist in the field to recreate them.
The case is Wyeth LLC v. AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1:21-cv-01338.
For Pfizer: Anthony Insogna, Gasper LaRosa, Jason Winchester, Bethany Biesenthal, John Michalik, Alexis Smith and Jennifer Swize of Jones Day; Sara Horton and Ren-How Harn of Willkie Farr & Gallagher
For AstraZeneca: Christopher Sipes, Einar Stole and Megan Keane of Covington & Burling
