By: Donald W. Hanson

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) case of Wyeth and Gordis Corporation v. Abbott Laboratories, decided on June 26, 2013, is an appeal by plaintiff Wyeth of a district court decision on summary judgment finding the claims of two U.S. patents of Wyeth invalid for non-enablement and thus not infringed. The district court held that the specifications of the two patents did not enable one of ordinary skill in the art to practice the claimed invention without undue experimentation.

The claims of the patents were directed to methods of treating or preventing retinosis in a mammal comprising the step of administering an effective amount of rapamycin to the mammal. Retinosis is the re-narrowing of an artery after a treatment to open the artery (such as, by implantation of a stent).–click here to read more—