High Court Should Hear Skinny Label Drug Patent Case, US Says

The federal government urged the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal from Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. challenging an appeals court ruling that it induced doctors or pharmacists to prescribe its generic heart medicine for off-label, patent-infringing uses.

Hikma shouldn’t be punished for its use of a so-called skinny label that “accurately described their drug as the generic version” of Amarin Pharma Inc.'s Vascepa, US Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in an amicus brief.

Amarin sells Vascepa, a heart medicine approved in 2012 for treatment of excessive levels of triglycerides in the blood and in 2019 for treatment ...