Toray

Toray Industries, Inc., who possesses a patent covering an antipruritic agent “Nalfurafine”, sued generic companies, Sawai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and Fuso Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd., for patent infringement to the Tokyo District Court on December 13 to seek an injunction against the production, etc. of their products.

Because the patent relates to second medical use of known compounds and the term of the patent has been extended, one of the issues of this case is the scope of an extended patent right of a second medicinal use invention, on which issue no court decision has been made yet.