Katrina Howard SC acted for the 3rd to 8th respondents, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Organon and Arrow, in their successful defence of a patent infringement claim brought by Pfizer.
The decision of Justice Burley, published on 15 September 2026, was the culmination of a near decade long dispute, which commenced with Pfizer’s application for preliminary discovery in 2017.
The case concerned a patent relating to a method for producing etanercept, a drug used to treat autoimmune diseases. The patent was held to be invalid for obviousness, save for one claim, and the process used by Samsung Bioepis to produce etanercept was held not to infring e the patent even if the patent had been valid.
Read the judgment here.
