News from Abroad: UK Court of Appeal Upholds Invalidity of Enantiomer Patent

    The UK Court of Appeal Decision inNovartis AG vs Generics (UK) Ltd(trading as Mylan), provides insight into the UK court's approach to judging the validity of patents relating to enantiomers of biologically active compounds.  UK Patent No. 2,203,040 to Novartis AG (and the associated Supplementary Protection Certificate (SPC)) protected rivastigmine, a drug used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.  The Court of Appeal held the patent to be invalid on the ground of obviousness and criticised the over-reliance on the "obvious to try" test for assessing obviousness.

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