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Opposition To Patent Applications 131392, 166550, 166189 And 135898 In The Name Of Smithkline Beecham – Rosiglitazone Maleate (July 2009)

The Patents Registrar accepted Unipharm’s opposition to patent Applications Nos. 131392, 166550, 166189 held that these applications are not patentable. The patent applications related to a process for manufacturing the known substance rosiglitazone maleate (the active ingredient of the drug Avandia) using a known synthetic procedure: reduction of the benzylidene precursor  using borohydrydes as reducing agents. The Registrar denied SKB’s contentions that this procedure was previously unknown for rosiglitazone and that the skilled man in the art would not know to use borohydrydes to reduce carbon-carbon double bonds at this specific molecule. The application was denied for lack of inventive step.

 

The district court of Jerusalem dismissed SKB’s appeal.