United Kingdom: Accord Healthcare Limited v. Medac Gesellschaft Für Klinische Spezialpräparate MBH, High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Chancery Division, Patents Court, HP-2014-000011, 13 January 2016

The Patents Court (Birss J) held that medac’s patent EP (UK) 2 046 332 relating to the use of a formulation of methotrexate at a concentration of about 50 mg/ml for the treatment of individuals with inflammatory autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by subcutaneous injection, was obvious over one of the prior art citations.  The Court also considered the possibility of a squeeze between plausibility and inventive step  Finally, the Judge stated that arguments of lack of inventive step over the common general knowledge alone should be approached with a degree of skepticism.

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.