Waselius acted for the defendant MSD Finland Oy in a preliminary injunction matter before the Finnish Market Court against F. Hoffman-La Roche AG, Roche Oy and Genentech Inc. The issue in the case was whether MSD Finland Oy by marketing and selling a medicinal product in Finland infringed Roche and Genentech’s rights according to the Finnish part of a European product patent.
The medicinal product in question is a biosimilar version of a biological medicinal product, which is manufactured and marketed by Roche. A biosimilar medicinal product is a similar but not identical version of an existing biological medicinal products, i.e. the reference product. A biosimilar product may have minor differences in the molecule compared to the reference product, but these differences must not influence the efficacy and safety, including adverse reactions, of the biosimilar version compared to the reference product. This was the first patent dispute ever in Finland regarding biosimilar products.
The Market Court considered in its decision of 11 March 2019 that there was no likelihood of an infringement of Roche’s and Genentech’s rights under the patent-in-suit and rejected Roche and Genentech’s request for a preliminary injunction. With the Market Court’s decision, MSD Finland Oy can continue the sale of its biosimilar product to Finnish hospitals.
Lawyers involved:
Bernt Juthström
Partner