How lack of data may have cost a pharmaceutical giant billions
With 2015 sales of US$1.6Bn and 2017 projected sales of US$2Bn, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (BMS’) anti-cancer drug dasatinib (Sprycel®) is highly successful and of great interest to competitors. A February 2017 decision from a Technical Board of Appeal at the EPO (European Patent Office) has resulted in the patent covering dasatinib being revoked. But why?
European patent 1169038 [1] covering dasatinib was granted in 2012, opposed in 2013, revoked in January 2016, and the revocation upheld in an appeal deci