Biogen’s patent on Tecfidera upheld

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office’s Patent Trial & Appeal Board has ruled in Biogen’s favor regarding a patent on the company’s multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera, which had sales last year of $4 billion. Activist investor J. Kyle Bass had sought to have the dosage-related patent invalidated to enable the emergence of generic versions. The same patent is also the subject of an interference proceeding with a patent owned by Forward Pharma on the drug’s active ingredient, dimethyl fumarate. In January, Biogen paid Forward, a Danish biotech firm, $1.25 billion to defer royalty claims.