Eli Lilly & Co. has won its case in Federal court in Delaware where it sought to protect its patent for the drug Alimta. Alimta (pemetrexed for injection) now marketed by Eli Lilly & Co. (“Lilly”) was developed in clinical trials by Lilly in the early 1990s after it was discovered that disodium pemetrexed, the active ingredient of Alimta, was very effective when dosed in a concentrated liquid for treating mesothelioma and other forms of lung cancer.
Since its approval by the FDA in 2004, Alimta has been used in conjunction with another chemotherapy drug, Cisplatin, to treat patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Malignant pleural mesothelioma (“MPM”) is a form of cancer that forms in the lining of the lung and is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. Symptoms of mesothelioma typically do not begin to develop until decades after exposure, and after the cancer has reached advanced stages.
Treatment options for any late stage cancer but particularly mesothelioma are limited and cannot be curative so therefore focus on palliative relief and improving quality of life. Standard therapies for mesothelioma include surgery (when possible,) chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Alimta is one of the most commonly used drugs in chemotherapy to treat mesothelioma.
The combination of Alimta and Cisplatin has been used to slow or shrink MPM in patients and has provided a treatment option in many cases where surgery was not an option due to the patient’s health or age. Clinical trials offered through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are constantly searching for new combination therapies or drugs that might help lengthen survival times and improve quality of life.
The Federal court found that Eli Lilly & Co.’s patent would be infringed upon if Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd. was allowed to market a generic version of Alimta in the United States. Eli Lilly & Co. claimed their patent does not expire until 2016.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 at 10:26 am and is filed under Mesothelioma Treatment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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