Actelion Veletri Patent Win Wiped Out by Federal Appeals Court

The Federal Circuit directed a federal judge in West Virginia to re-interpret a pair of patents behind Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd.'s pulmonary arterial hypertension drug Veletri, at issue in the company’s infringement lawsuit against Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed in response to Mylan efforts to win government approval of a generic alternative.

A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals on Monday wiped out a district court’s claim construction order on grounds that evidence was improperly ignored. The appeal turned on the trial judge’s broad interpretation of the patent term “a pH of 13 or higher” and whether she erred by ...