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Fish & Richardson Secures Win for Exela Pharma Sciences in ELCYS® Patent Infringement Litigation
[August 15, 2022]

Fish & Richardson Secures Win for Exela Pharma Sciences in ELCYS® Patent Infringement Litigation


Fish & Richardson secured a significant victory for Exela Pharma Sciences, LLC, the maker of ELCYS®, in patent infringement litigation against Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc., over its intent to produce a generic version of Exela's patented ELCYS® product. ELCYS® is the only FDA-approved cysteine hydrochloride injection on the market for use as an additive to amino acid solutions to meet the nutritional requirements of newborn infants requiring total parenteral nutrition (TPN), and of adult and pediatric patients with severe liver disease who may have impaired enzymatic processes and require TPN.

In her August 8 ruling, Judge Maryellen Noreika of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware agreed with Fish that Eton's Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) product infringes all asserted claims of Exela's patents, and that Exela's patents are not invalid. The court rejected each and every one of Eton's challenges.

"We are pleased that the court wholeheartedly agreed with our arguments and ruled in favor of our client across the board," said Fish principal Corrin Drakulich. "Exela made the first drug of this type with extremely low levels of aluminum, which has been known for decades to be toxic to infants. Protecting Exela's investment in arriving at this innovation will enable it to do further research and development and invest in manufacturing infrastructure to benefit other patients, beyond the fragile infant patients who rely on ELCYS® every day."

Judge Noreika's ruling is the culmination of a two-and-a-half-year dispute with Eton. Fish filed a Hatch-Waxman lawsuit in the District of Delaware on behalf of Exela in March 2020 against Eton. Eton responded by filing three post-grant review petitions (PGRs) against Exela's ELCYS® patents in an attempt to invalidate those patents in parallel proceedings. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board agreed with Fish's responsive filings and refused to institute the requested PGRs, ensuring any further validity challenge would be heard in district court. In the district court case, Fish won a key pre-trial motion on behalf of Exela that knocked out Eton's primary non-infringement theory and led to Eton stipulating to infringement of two of the three patents on the eve of trial.

At trial, which lasted three days, a Fish team led by Drakulich successfully poved infringement of the third patent, and rebuffed Eton's claims that the patents were both anticipated and obvious based on prior art products which exhibited the very problems Exela set out to, and did, solve. Marshaling the scientific evidence through opinion leading industry experts, Fish demonstrated that the patent claims are novel and nonobvious.



The case is Exela Pharma Sciences, LLC v. Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc., C.A. No. 20-365. In addition to Drakulich, the Fish attorneys representing Exela at trial were Betsy Flanagan, Greg Booker, Christina Brown-Marshall, Dexter Whitley, Deanna Reichel, and Karrie Wheatley.

The full court opinion can be viewed here.


About Fish & Richardson

Fish & Richardson, a premier global intellectual property law firm, is sought after and trusted by the world's most innovative brands and influential technology leaders. Fish offers patent prosecution, litigation, trademark, and copyright counseling and advocacy for a broad range of client needs. Our deep bench of attorneys with first-chair trial experience in every technology makes us the go-to firm for the most technically complex cases. We have an established reputation as a top-tier firm for patent portfolio planning, strategy and prosecution, as well as post-grant proceedings at the PTAB. Fish was established in 1878, and now has more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists in the U.S., Europe, and China. Our success is rooted in our creative and inclusive culture, which values the diversity of people, experiences, and perspectives. For more information, visit fr.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.


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