Allergan (AGN) Legal Move 'Extremely Important for Industry' - Evercore ISI Raffat
Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat weighed in on Allergan (NYSE: AGN) after the company transferred key Orange Book patents on Restasis to St Regis Mohwak Tribe which claims sovereign immunity.
Raffat notes this is "extremely important for the industry to track."
He explains:
"In putting out this press release, Allergan cites two precedent cases involving IPRs against universities that were dismissed on similar grounds.
BUT, there is a difference: the precedent IPRs were originally started against sovereign entities to begin with … the Restasis IPR was started against Allergan, but the patents are now being transferred to a sovereign entity.
Big diligence issue for me: in theory, other companies can now try to transfer their key patents to sovereign entities and thus, avoid IPR challenges … in that scenario, will courts allow that to happen?
I spoke to AGN on this and they believe that the appropriate venue for pharma patent litigation is via HW laws and district court litigation."
Further, the analyst said if other companies can circumvent IPRs also, three important cases to keep in mind:
1. Eli Lilly's (NYSE: LLY) Alimta IPRs
2. Amgen'S (Nasdaq: AMGN) Enbrel IPRs
3. Pfizer's (NYSE: PFE) Prevnar IPRs