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Allergan's Mohawk evergreening patent deal draws criticism, but ultimately may flop

Nature Biotechnology volume 35, page 1002 (2017)Cite this article

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“The judge cast significant doubt on whether any other pharma company will pursue transactions like that between Allergan and the tribe,” according to Zachary Silbersher, a patent lawyer at the Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov firm in New York. Although the judge didn't issue a ruling in the sovereignty issue, his opinion will carry weight in other patent decisions, according to Silbersher.

Dublin-based Allergan had transferred the intellectual property to the upstate New York nation, and in exchange, the Mohawk tribe was to receive $13.75 million and royalties of $15 million annually. This move, described as 'renting' sovereignty, had been heavily criticized as a sneaky legal maneuver. Allergan's ploy, if successful, could have severely hampered the ability of generic drug makers to challenge branded drugs through the so-called inter partes review (IPR; Nat. Biotechnol. 34, 1242–1244, 2016) process. This form of patent challenge established in 2011 has been unpopular with branded drugmakers, who blame it for the rise in 'patent trolls'. Intellectual property transfers would offer pharma companies a way to escape a recently created tribunal process that Brent Saunders, Allergan's CEO, has called “double jeopardy.”

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    Eva von Schaper

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von Schaper, E. Allergan's Mohawk evergreening patent deal draws criticism, but ultimately may flop. Nat Biotechnol 35, 1002 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1117-1002

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