Court upholds Mylan's patents on COPD drug

PITTSBURGH — A federal appellate court has ruled in favor of Mylan in a case involving a drug for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the drug maker said Tuesday.

Mylan said that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had reversed a lower court's decision invalidating five patents held by subsidiary Mylan Specialty for Perforomist (formoterol fumarate) in a case filed in 2007 against Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma subsidiary Sunovion Pharmaceuticals over the drug Brovana (arformoterol tartrate).

Mylan Specialty, then known as Dey Pharma, alleged that Brovana violated seven of its patents on Perforomist. Last year, the companies reached a settlement in which Sunovion admitted to infringing two of the patents, but not the other five.