Victory for Caraco in Prandin Patent Infringement Trial

Winston & Strawn recently obtained a major victory on behalf of clients Sun Pharmaceutical and Caraco Pharmaceuticals. As The American Lawyer stated in one of their lead stories featured on January 20, "Chalk up another huge generic pharma win for Winston & Strawn." After a three-week trial before Judge Cohn of the Eastern District of Michigan, Winston's team defeated a key diabetes patent owned by Denmark's Novo Nordisk. The win paves the way for the firm's client to launch the first generic form of Novo's Prandin drug.    

In its 72-page opinion, the Court not only found Novo's patent invalid for obviousness, it also found that Novo committed fraud on the Patent Office. The Court concluded that Novo had deliberately "misrepresented and withheld highly material information with an intent to deceive" the Patent Office, rendering Novo's patent unenforceable for "inequitable conduct."

The trial team included Chuck Klein and David Bloch, with trial support from Matt Campbell and Steffen Johnson.

The matter garnered extensive coverage in a number of outlets, including The American Lawyer, law.com and Corporate Counsel.