ViiV’s Patent Suit on Gilead’s Biktarvy Will Continue: Judge

A federal judge in Delaware denied Gilead’s request for a ruling that its Biktarvy drug doesn’t infringe a patent for ViiV’s Tivicay, a competing HIV treatment.

• Patent covers compounds for treating HIV
• “It is not clear from the claims or written description” of the patent “that a difluoro benzyl ring necessarily excludes a trifluoro benzyl ring,” District Judge Colm Connolly said in an opinion issued Monday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware
• ViiV is a joint venture created by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer
• Biktarvy is a triple-therapy, single-tablet drug used to treat HIV
• Seven-day jury trial set to begin ...