AstraZeneca Loses Toprol-XL in Court of Appeals

AstraZeneca AB et al. v. KV Pharmaceuticals, LLC et al. US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) has affirmed the US District Court’s invalidity ruling on double patenting over the US Patent No. 5,081,154 (the ‘154 patent) which simply reads “Metoprolol Succinate.” Earlier, Astra appealed the grant of summary judgment of invalidity of the ‘154 patent based on double patenting. Citing In re Emert, the Appeal Court agreed with the district court that claim 1 of the ‘154 patent is invalid for obviousness-type double patenting.