Escitalopram patent/SPC held invalid in the Hague

The Dutch first instance decision in ratiopharm et al v Lundbeck, concerning the validity of Lundbeck’s escitalopram patent (EP 066) has now been handed down by the Hague District Court. The court held that all the claims of Lundbeck’s escitalopram patent (and Lundbeck’s Dutch Supplementary Protection Certificate which was based upon it) were invalid for lack of inventive step.

Interestingly, the court's decision contains many references in the decision to the 4 May 2007 decision of Mr Justice Kitchin, with which decision the Dutch Court on relevant points “respectfully disagrees” (as the court said, in English, at § 6.39), on the basis of different/further evidence to that put before Kitchin J. You can read the court's decision in full here -- in Dutch.

[Information supplied by Richard Ebbink and Mark van Gardingen, Brinkhof].