CA Paris, 30/01/2015 : La brevetabilité d’une revendication de seconde indication thérapeutique reposant uniquement sur une caractéristique de posologie peut être admise.

Cet article a été initialement publié sur le blog Patentmyfrench tenu par Renaud Fulconis.

The local position regarding the admissibility of posology features in further medical use claims has been the subject of a long lasting controversy which ended this year.

As our distinguished readers surely remember, on February 19, 2010 the Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBA) of the European Patent Office (EPO) decided that where it is already known to use a medicament to treat an illness, Article 54(5) of the European Patent Convention (EPC) does not exclude that this medicament be patented for use in a different treatment by therapy of the same illness, in particular where a dosage regime is the only feature claimed which is not comprised in the state of the art (G 2/08).

A French judge though is not one to be impressed by a 44-page long decision from the EPO, and even the EBA, as is evidenced by the decision of the Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance (TGI) of September 28, 2010 (Actavis Group & Alfred E. Tiefenbacher v. Merck Sharp & Dohme).

This case notably dealt with an invalidity action brought against claims 1, 2 and 3 of European patent No.0724444 (the ‘444 patent) in the name of Merck & Co. filed on October 11, 1994 and granted on August 6, 1997, for an alleged lack of industrial application, lack of novelty and lack of inventive step.

Claim 1 of the ‘444 patent read:

The use of 17β (N-tert-butylcarbamoy-l)-4-aza-5-alpha-androst-1-ene-3-one for the preparation of a medicament for oral administration useful for the treatment of androgenic alopecia in a person and wherein the dosage amount is about 0.05 to 1.0 mg.

All specialists will have noted that being granted before the entry into force of Article 54(5) EPC 2000, the claim is under the so-called Swiss format. Besides, it recites a posology (i.e. dosage regime) feature, namely that the dosage amount is about 0.05 to 1.0 mg (underlined above).

At the priority date of the ‘444 patent, finasteride, the short name of 17β (N-tert-butylcarbamoy-l)-4-aza-5-alpha-androst-1-ene-3-one, was known to be an inhibitor of 5-alpha-reductase, the enzyme catalyzing the transformation of testosterone into the more potent androgen dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT is involved in several androgen-related disorders, such as mild-to-moderate benign prostatic hyperplasia and androgenic alopecia, i.e. baldness.

Finasteride was for instance known to be useful for treating alopecia through the reduction of DHT levels, as shown by European patent No.0285382 (the ‘382 patent) filed on March 30, 1988 in the name of Merck & Co. Inc.

The invention forming the subject-matter of the ‘444 patent was thus said to arise from the surprising and unexpected discovery that a low daily dosage of finasteride is particularly useful in the treatment of androgenic alopecia.

However, the TGI considered that a claim including such a posology feature in fact covered a method for treatment by therapy:

[As a consequence,] it is possible to patent a medicament with the view of treating a first disease and then a second but it is not possible to patent a posology adapted for treating these diseases as it would be an attempt at patenting a method of treatment by therapy, which is not allowed, as such a method is reserved to the field of care and depends from the sole liberty, and associated responsibility, of each physician.

Claim 1 of patent EP 0724444, of which the only novel feature over the prior art is the specified posology is thus excluded from patentability and must therefore be revoked in view of article 53c EPC 2000.

As for decision G 2/08, the TGI issued a concise appreciation thereof:

[Furthermore] Article 54(4) EPC which allows patenting a same medicament for a further therapeutic effect is completely silent on the allowability of patenting a particular posology. Accordingly, the answer of the Enlarged Board according to which “such patenting is also not excluded where a dosage regime is the only feature claimed which is not comprised in the state of the art” does not arise from the Convention but from an interpretation of what is a posology, i.e. a further medical use, which it is obviously not.

Apart from the slight errors in applying EPC 2000 rather than EPC 1973 and referring to Article 54(4) instead of 54(5) EPC, it can be retained thatthe first instance court essentially considered that establishing a posology is part of the exclusive practice of physicians and that it can therefore not be patented.

This decision was immediately applied by the French patent office (INPI), which included in its Guidelines for Examination a provision according to which a claim relating to a posology should be rejected.

An appeal was lodged against the decision of the TGI which led to a decision of the Cour d’appel de Paris of January 30, 2015.

Without addressing the merits of the arguments set forth by the Tribunal, the Court essentially followed the conclusion of decision G 2/08. This is what the Court of Appeal had to say:

It follows from the foregoing that if the patentability of a further medical use claim relying only on a posology feature may be allowed even for a patent depending from the EPC 1973 construed under the light of the later amendment of the convention and of the resulting case law, [the claim] must comply with the requirement of the existence of a different technical teaching, and for this reason it is necessary, as is stated by Merck, to also take into account the features relating to the dosage. [emphasis added]

The situation has thus been clarified in France regarding the admissibility of posology features in further medical use claims: such features are allowed – at least for European patents, that is. Indeed, the situation remains unclear regarding French patents, as the decision only addresses the EPC and because, to date, the INPI has not changed its Guidelines for Examination.

Still, the Court confirmed the first instance judgement by revoking claims 1 to 3. This time the revocation was pronounced on the ground of lack of novelty. The Court considered that the ‘444 patent did not comprise a different technical teaching from that of the ‘382 patent, even though the latter does not disclose the dosage amount claimed by the ‘444 patent.

CASE REFERENCE: Cour d’appel de Paris, pole 5, 2ème chambre, January 30, 2015, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Actavis Group EHF et al., RG No. 10/19659.