On Aug. 10, 2017, the Federal Circuit dismissed an interlocutory appeal of a denied discovery order for lack of jurisdiction and denied the writ of mandamus seeking to compel discovery in a patent infringement case under Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCIA). Amgen Inc. v. Hospira, Inc., No. 2016-2179 (Fed. Cir. Aug. 10, 2017). Amgen alleged that Hospira, which filed a subsection (k) application for a biosimilar of EPOGEN, failed to comply with paragraph (l)(2)(A) for failing to provide information concerning the process used to manufacture the biological product. Despite this disagreement over Hospira’s compliance, Amgen listed the patents relating to the biological product but didn’t identify any cell-culture patent as part of its own BPCIA disclosures. Amgen filed suit against Hospira and sought discovery on the composition of Hospira’s cell-culture medium. Amgen filed a motion to compel after Hospira rejected Amgen’s discovery requests. In denying Amgen’s motion, the district court reasoned that the cell-culture information had no relevance to the asserted patents. In dismissing the appeal, the Federal Circuit stated rulings on discovery do not qualify for the collateral order doctrine’s exception to the final judgment rule and the lack of immediate appeal over such discovery orders does not render them effectively unreviewable.
Full text of the opinion is available here.
Full text of the opinion is available here.
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