Pfizer’s Competing Drug to Lilly’s Alimta Barred Until 2022

Eli Lilly & Co. won a fight with Pfizer Inc.'s Hospira unit over a patent on Lilly’s $2 billion lung cancer drug Alimta.

Hospira Inc. developed and designed a competing drug product to Alimta (pemetrexed for injection) using tromethamine, a salt base, instead of the sodium base used in Alimta. Lilly sued for patent infringement and the court ruled Hospira’s proposed new drug infringed Lilly’s U.S. Patent No. 7,772,209 covering antifolate combination therapies.

The ruling means Alimta—Lilly’s third-biggest drug product behind its Humalog insulin drug and Cialis for erectile dysfunction—is safe from competition until May 2022, when the patent expires. ...