Mer­ck pulls a patent win for di­a­betes fran­chise in West Vir­ginia fed­er­al court

Mer­ck doesn’t have to sweat Janu­via and Janu­met com­peti­tors — at least for now.

A fed­er­al judge award­ed Mer­ck a win in its patent bat­tle against Vi­a­tris, the phar­ma gi­ant an­nounced Thurs­day, putting the freeze on a po­ten­tial Vi­a­tris gener­ic un­til at least 2026, bar­ring an ap­peal.

Judge Irene Kee­ley of West Vir­ginia up­held two key patents sur­round­ing sitagliptin, an ac­tive in­gre­di­ent in the block­buster di­a­betes drugs. The first patent, No. 7,326,708, cov­ers the di­hy­dro­gen phos­phate salt of sitagliptin and is valid through 2026, with pe­di­atric ex­clu­siv­i­ty un­til 2027. The sec­ond, No. 8,414,921, cov­ers the co-for­mu­la­tion of sitagliptin and met­formin in Janu­met and ex­pires in 2029.

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