Shire plc reports that the  US Supreme Court granted Shire's petition in the Shire v. Watson patent case regarding Lialda (mesalamine, 1.2 gram). The granting of this petition by the Supreme Court vacates the decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit with respect to the claim construction in the case against Watson (now Actavis).

Lialda is a locally acting 5-aminosalicylic acid indicated for the induction of remission in adults with active, mild to moderate ulcerative colitis and for the maintenance of remission of ulcerative colitis.

In 2013, Shire prevailed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in a patent litigation against Watson (now Actavis) involving US.Patent No. 6,773,720 for Lialda On appeal, the federal circuit reversed the district court's claim construction. With the granting of the petition by the Supreme Court, the federal circuit's decision on claim construction is vacated, and the case will be remanded back to the federal circuit for further consideration under the deferential standard of review recently announced by the Supreme Court in Teva v. Sandoz. In that decision, the Supreme Court ruled factual findings made by a district court when construing the claims of a patent are entitled to deference on appeal, which modifies the de novo standard used by the federal circuit with respect to claim construction.

Source: Shire