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Federal Circuit upholds Mylan’s win in Actelion epoprostenol patent fight

Published
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9

Why it matters

The Federal Circuit has affirmed a noninfringement ruling favoring Mylan Pharmaceuticals in a patent dispute with Actelion Pharmaceuticals over epoprostenol formulations used in Actelion's Veletri drug. The court agreed that Mylan's proposed generic product does not infringe Actelion's asserted patents—U.S. Patent Nos. 8,318,802 and 8,598,227—because the patents' claimed "pH of 13 or higher" requirement must be measured at standard temperature conditions, which Mylan's product does not satisfy under that construction.

The case has moved through the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia and the Federal Circuit twice. In 2023, the Federal Circuit vacated an earlier infringement judgment and remanded for the district court to consider extrinsic evidence on how a person of ordinary skill would interpret the pH limitation. On remand, the district court again ruled for Mylan. The Federal Circuit's May 13, 2026 precedential decision now affirms that outcome.

The ruling matters because it removes a significant regulatory obstacle for Mylan's ANDA pathway to generic approval. Beyond this case, the decision establishes precedent on how courts construe measurement conditions in patent claims and applies both prosecution history estoppel and the disclosure-dedication rule to defeat doctrine-of-equivalents arguments. Attorneys handling pharmaceutical patent disputes should note the court's approach to technical claim construction and the weight given to extrinsic evidence in interpreting functional limitations.

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