Wockhardt Seems to have Lost Humalog Pre-Grant Opposition Against Lilly

Although not confirmed, the Mumbai-based Biotechnology Company Wockhardt has apparently lost the pre-grant opposition filed against Eli Lilly & Co. following Kolkata Patent Office rejection in July last year for Indian Patent Application No. 675/CAL/1995 covering recombinant DNA engineered fast acting insulin analogue Insulin Lispro, globally marketed as Humalog Injection and also as Humalog 50/50 and Humalog 75/25 in combination with recombinant engineered intermediate acting Insulin Lispro Protamine. Just added to that Pharmabiz recently published an article by Ashwini Sandu and Raju Kumar (Patent Attorneys working with S. Majumdar & Co.) referring that the Application was under pre-grant opposition where one of the contested issues was the application of Problem-Solution approach, where the Controller held that a correct application of the problem solution approach rules out an inadvertent application of an impermissible ex post facto analysis and this has been one of the guiding principles of the Patent Offices in the assessment of inventive step. Considering the hidden nature of pre-grant oppositions and dearth of information available, it seems to be that S. Majumdar & Co. was one of the Law Firm involved in the opposition, but the article does not talk about the outcome of the pre-grant opposition. Even not sure the Application filed June 14, 1995 claiming priority from the US Application No. 08/260,634 against which US Patent No. 5,474,978 is issued on December 12, 1995 has matured into a valid Indian Patent or not.