Belcher Pharm., LLC v. Int'l Medication Sys., Ltd.
Belcher Pharm., LLC v. Int'l Medication Sys., Ltd.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff Belcher Pharmaceuticals, LLC ("Plaintiff" or "Belcher") asserts in its June 28, 2018 Complaint that Defendant International Medication Systems, LLC ("Defendant" or "IMS") infringes Plaintiff's
I. BACKGROUND
U.S. Patent Application No. 14/460,845 was filed on August 15, 2014, and the '197 patent issued as a result on March 15, 2016. (D.I. 1-1 at 1) The '197 patent was issued to Jugal K. Taneja and assigned to Plaintiff. (D.I. 15 at 4) Of the three independent and four dependent claims, only Claims 6 and 7 are asserted, which the *328Complaint alleges are infringed by Defendant's NDA product.
IMS filed its paper NDA in February, 2018 for 0.1 mg/mL epinephrine injections. (D.I. 9 at 2) This filing was made pursuant to the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term Restoration Act of 1984 (the "Hatch-Waxman Act"), specifically
Plaintiff alleges Defendant's NDA filing was an act of infringement under
II. LEGAL STANDARDS
Evaluating a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) requires the Court to accept as true all material allegations of a complaint. See Spruill v. Gillis ,
A well-pleaded complaint must contain more than mere labels and conclusions. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal ,
"To survive a motion to dismiss, a civil plaintiff must allege facts that 'raise a right to relief above the speculative level on the assumption that the allegations in the complaint are true (even if doubtful in fact),' " Victaulic Co. v. Tieman ,
The Court is not obligated to accept as true "bald assertions," Morse v. Lower Merion Sch. Dist. ,
III. DISCUSSION
The pertinent allegations of infringement in the Complaint are as follows:
17. IMS submitted NDA No. 21163 to the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") seeking approval to engage in the commercial manufacture, use, or sale of the [IMS] NDA Product.
18. By letter dated May 16, 2018 ("Notice Letter"),... IMS notified Belcher that IMS had submitted NDA No. 211363 to the FDA seeking approval to engage in the commercial manufacture, use, or sale of the NDA Product before the expiration of the '197 Patent.
19. In the Notice Letter, Defendant notified Plaintiff that, as a part of IMS's NDA, they had filed a certification ... ("Paragraph IV Certification") with respect to the '197 Patent.
20. The manufacture of IMS's NDA Product is covered by Claims 6 and 7 of the '197 Patent.
...
23. By submitting NDA No. 211363 to the FDA to obtain approval under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to engage in the commercial manufacture, use, offer for sale, sale, and/or importation of the NDA Product throughout the United States prior to the expiration of the '197 Patent, Defendant committed an act of infringement of the '197 Patent under35 U.S.C. §§ 271 (a), 271(b), and/or 271(c).
(Compl.)
Defendant argues that "Belcher's Complaint is fatally flawed" because it "merely states legal conclusions without alleging any facts that could make a plausible case for patent infringement against IMS." (D.I. 9 at 3) Defendant contends that the mere allegation that "[t]he manufacture of IMS's NDA Product is covered by Claims 6 and 7 of the '197 Patent" (Compl. at ¶ 20) is conclusory and provides insufficient notice of Plaintiff's claim. According to IMS, *330" 'There needs to be some facts alleged that articulate why it is plausible that the other party's product infringes that patent claim -- not just the patentee asserting, in conclusory fashion, that it is so.' " (D.I. 9 at 6) (quoting North Star Innovations, Inc. v. Micron Tech., Inc. ,
Underlying Defendant's contentions is the contention that Plaintiff's Complaint should be treated like any other complaint for patent infringement, and not given special treatment - even at the pleading stage - under § 271(e)(2). (See D.I. 9 at 7; D.I. 19 at 2, n.2) " '( Section 271 (e)(2)(A) defines the filing of an ANDA as an act of infringement, but it does not alter the underlying patent infringement analysis.' ") (quoting Bayer Schering Pharma AG v. Lupin, Ltd. ,
Plaintiff responds that only the asserted claims and the artificial act of infringement need be pled, "because 'Congress defined infringement in a special way to create an 'artificial' act of infringement under § 271(e)(2) : submitting an ANDA.' " (D.I. 15 at 5-6) (quoting Bristol-Myers Squibb Company v. Mylan Pharm. Inc. ,
The Court agrees with Plaintiff. In the Court's view, both the language and the purpose of the Hatch-Waxman Act establish that a plaintiff in receipt of a paragraph IV certification providing notice of the filing of an ANDA (or, as here, a paper NDA)
As the Supreme Court has described, the Act created a unique action to facilitate the speedy and cost-effective entrance of generic drug to the market:
The function of the paragraphs in question is to define a new (and somewhat artificial) act of infringement for a very limited and technical purpose that relates only to certain drug applications. As an additional means of eliminating the de facto extension at the end of the patent term in the case of drugs, and to enable new drugs to be marketed more cheaply and quickly, § 101 of the 1984 Act amended § 505 of the FDCA,21 U.S.C. § 355 , to authorize abbreviated new drug applications (ANDA's), which would substantially shorten the time and effort needed to obtain marketing approval.... In addition, § 103 of the 1984 Act amended § 505(b) of the FDCA, § 355(b), to permit submission of a so-called paper new drug application (paper NDA), an application that relies on published literature to satisfy the requirement of animal and human studies demonstrating safety and effectiveness. See § 355(b)(2). Like ANDA's, paper NDA's permit an applicant seeking approval of a generic drug to avoid the costly and time-consuming studies required for a pioneer drug.
Eli Lilly & Co. v. Medtronic, Inc. ,
This purpose is advanced by allowing plaintiff's in this type of case to rely on the sufficiency of pleading the artificial act of infringement, allowing the particularized theory of infringement to be developed through discovery and other phases of the case. A plaintiff in receipt of a paragraph IV certification has an extremely limited time, just 45 days, in which to decide whether (and, if so, where and against whom), to file suit, if it is to obtain the benefit of the automatic stay of FDA approval.
In the Court's view, Plaintiff's pleading here complies with the requirements of Iqbal and Twombly as applied to the unique context of a Hatch-Waxman claim for patent infringement. In context, the Complaint does "allow[ ] the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged." Iqbal ,
This holding is not in conflict with "the patentee's burden of proving ultimate infringement," which "is not met by the filing of the ANDA" and "is the same as it is in any other infringement suit." Glaxo, Inc. ,
Finally, the Court is unpersuaded by Defendant's suggestion that the reason for the lack of specificity in Plaintiff's Complaint - and the futility that would mar any amended complaint the Court might contemplate permitting Plaintiff to file - is that Plaintiff knows and understands that "any theory of infringement would necessarily invalidate the '197 patent." (D.I. 9 at 1) Defendant asserts:
If IMS's manufacture and sale of injectable epinephrine formulations would infringe the patent, then what Belcher claims to be its invention is simply not new. Any arguments that Belcher makes regarding how IMS's NDA products infringe the '197 patent would actually be admissions that the '197 patent is invalid in view of IMS's manufacture and sale of injectable epinephrine formulations since at least 2010, long before the 2014 patent filing date.
(Id. ) The Court, of course, is not in a position to evaluate the merits of Defendant's invalidity defense at the motion to dismiss stage. As Plaintiff explains, many *333of the premises of Defendant's argument implicate factual disputes. For example:
Defendant's 2010 epinephrine formulation documentation ... has not been shown to be the formulation used in Defendant's NDA Product because Defendant's only evidence proffering such arguments includes a blank batch record as well as a package insert that does not show the manufacturing details of the formulation ....
... [Nor] has [it] been shown that the 2010 Formulation was the subject of a commercial offer for sale or that it was ready for patenting.
...
Lastly, Defendant has not shown by clear and convincing evidence that the 2010 Formulation would render the '197 Patent invalid as obvious [for reasons including secondary considerations of nonobviousness].
(D.I. 15 at 2-3)
More fundamentally, the Court presumes (as it is permitted to do, on the record before it) that Plaintiff's counsel are well aware of their obligations, including under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11, and therefore presumes Plaintiff has a non-frivolous, good faith basis for its allegation of infringement. Should this turn out not to be correct, Defendant will have an opportunity to seek appropriate relief. But dismissal of the Complaint on the basis of the pending motion is not warranted.
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the Court will deny Defendants' motion to dismiss. An appropriate Order follows.
ORDER
At Wilmington this 31st day of March, 2019, consistent with the Memorandum *334Opinion issued this date, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendant International Medication Systems Limited's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim (D.I. 8) is DENIED .
The parties shall meet and confer and, no later than April 8, 2019, submit a proposed scheduling order.
This procedure, under § 355(b), is similar to but distinct from that governing Abbreviated New Drug Applications ("ANDA"), which are governed by
As Plaintiff points out, "none of the allegations are made based on 'information and belief.' " (D.I. 27 at 3) While the Complaint does not make this clear, evidently Plaintiff intends to allege both literal infringement and infringement under the doctrine of equivalents. (See
Defendant argues that its paper NDA should be treated differently than a typical ANDA application. "Belcher fails to take into account that IMS filed a 505(b)(2) application, which is an NDA not an ANDA. Unlike an ANDA [under 505(j) ], a 505(b)(2) application is necessarily different by statute, and it requires additional clinical studies to confirm that the product is safe and effective." (D.I. 19 at 4) The Court disagrees, concluding instead that the same pleading standard applies to both 505(j) and 505(b)(2) suits. Both are statutorily-created artificial acts of infringement, and both serve the same purpose of facilitating the speedy and cost-effective market-entry of a generic drug, while at the same time protecting valuable patent rights, by providing a mechanism for relatively expeditious pre-launch resolution of patent disputes.
Almost without exception, the NDA or ANDA filings are quite lengthy - here, Defendant's ANDA was more than 4,000 pages. (See D.I. 15 at 6) Further, sometimes, as happened here, a sizeable portion of the 45-day window in which to file suit is devoted to attempting to negotiate the terms of an OCA. Additionally, it is not uncommon for multiple ANDAs to be filed on the same patent at the same time, putting a plaintiff in the position of having to make decisions about launching multiple litigations, all within the same (or substantially the same) 45-day window.
The defenses asserted here by IMS are different than those asserted in the cases to which IMS compares the instant case. (See D.I. 9 at 12) In Amgen Inc. v. Coherus Biosciences Inc. ,
Nor does the Court find that the most reasonable exercise of its discretion is to convert the motion to dismiss into a summary judgment motion, as Defendant asks the Court to do as an alternative to granting its motion. (See, e.g. , D.I. 28 at 6) Should either party wish the Court to consider a summary judgment motion (early, or at the conclusion of all fact and expert discovery), it should include such a proposal in the forthcoming proposed scheduling order the Court will be directing the parties to submit.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- BELCHER PHARMACEUTICALS, LLC v. INTERNATIONAL MEDICATION SYSTEMS, LIMITED
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published