BioMarin Bests Ascendis in Appeal Over Patent Suit Stay (1)

The Federal Circuit faulted Ascendis Pharma AS’s maneuver to halt a patent suit in a ruling that effectively allows BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. to push to block the launch of a rival dwarfism treatment to its Voxzogo injection.

Ascendis’ dropping and refiling a complaint in California federal court—which reset a deadline for seeking a mandatory stay—violated common-law principles, using “voluntary dismissal to accomplish indirectly what cannot be accomplished directly,” Judge Kara F. Stoll of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a precedential opinion filed Thursday affirming the lower court’s ruling.

The high-stakes dispute started when BioMarin ...