By Blake Brittain
(Reuters) – Eli Lilly & Co must pay Teva Pharmaceuticals International GmbH $176.5 million after a trial to determine whether its migraine drug Emgality infringed three Teva patents, a Boston federal court jury decided on Wednesday.
The jury agreed with Teva that Lilly’s Emgality violated its rights in the patents, which relate to its own migraine drug Ajovy. Both drugs treat migraines by employing antibodies to inhibit headache-causing peptides.
The jury also found that Lilly infringed the patents willfully and rejected its argument that the patents were invalid.
A spokesperson for Lilly said the company was disappointed by the verdict but is confident that it will “ultimately prevail” in the case, and said the decision does not affect its ability to offer Emgality to patients.
A Teva spokesperson said the company is pleased with the decision and will “continue to vigorously defend its intellectual property rights.”
Indianapolis-based Lilly earned over $577 million from Emgality sales worldwide last year, while Israel-based Teva made $313 million from Ajovy, according to company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Teva has said that expects its two branded drugs, Ajovy and Huntington’s disease drug Austedo, to generate a combined $1.4 billion in revenue this year.
Teva sued Lilly over the patents in 2018. The same day Teva sued, the court dismissed two related Teva lawsuits seeking to block Emgality from coming onto the U.S. market.
Teva also filed a separate, ongoing patent lawsuit against Lilly in Massachusetts over Emgality last year.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by David Bario and Deepa Babington)
