Federal Court refuses to grant a patent injunction for public interest reasons

In a patent infringement and validity proceeding, the Federal Court of Canada refused to grant an injunction over an infringing adalimumab biosimilar therapy because it was not in the public interest to do so.

The Court found infringement and noted that injunctions are usually granted unless there is an equitable reason not to. However, as there was no identical product available, patients would have to switch to a different dose should an injunction issue. The Court held, for specific factual reasons including patient pain, this was not in the public interest and preferred for the patentee to be compensated by a reasonable forward royalty on sales instead of an injunction. In regard to the royalty rate, the Court noted it should “easily be determined given the licensing agreements the patentee has with seven other biosimilar pharmaceutical companies.” But noted if the parties could not agree, the royalty would be determined in the remedies stage of the bifurcated trial.

AbbVie Corporation v. Jamp Pharma Corporation, 2023 FC 1520