WARREN, N.J., March 12, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MonoSol Rx, LLC ("MonoSol Rx"), the developer of PharmFilm® drug delivery technology, will continue to defend its patent portfolio from attack by its competitor, BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc. (Nasdaq:BDSI), ("BDSI") and its partners MEDA Pharmaceuticals Inc. ("MEDA"), and Aveva Drug Delivery Systems, Inc. ("Aveva").
In accordance with its usual standard practices, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") granted the reexamination request made by BDSI regarding U.S. Patent Nos. 7,425,292 ("the '292 patent"), 7,824,588 ("the '588 patent"), and 7,357,891 ("the '891 patent"). Although BDSI suggested multiple grounds for reexamining the claims, the PTO adopted only a portion of these suggestions as formal rejections, pending review. Importantly, the reexaminations proceed separately from the patent infringement lawsuit brought by MonoSol Rx against BDSI, which is ongoing in the federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, and do not constitute a ruling in the litigation.
Shortly after the PTO granted BDSI's request for reexamination of MonoSol Rx's patents, the federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, granted BDSI's request to then stay the infringement litigation in order to give the PTO the opportunity to complete the reexaminations. MonoSol Rx believes this request, in addition to the reexamination requests, were merely a litigation tactic intended to slow down the lawsuit.
A. Mark Schobel, President and Chief Executive Officer of MonoSol Rx, stated, "We remain confident that we will prevail in the reexamination proceedings on all three patents and will strive to do so as rapidly as possible. We are eager to resume the federal court litigation so that MonoSol Rx can continue to enforce its intellectual property rights and to protect its technology against infringement."
MonoSol Rx is the industry leader in the development of drug-containing film products. MonoSol Rx has more than a dozen pending U.S. applications and issued patents in this patent family alone, and many other patents covering the technology in the U.S. and around the world.
About MonoSol Rx
MonoSol Rx is a specialty pharmaceutical company leveraging its proprietary PharmFilm® technology to deliver drugs in films. PharmFilm® is designed to benefit patients by improving the convenience, efficacy, and compliance of new and currently marketed drugs. The Company's leadership in film drug delivery is supported by strong intellectual property, a portfolio of commercialized prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drug products, a pipeline of prescription formulations based on PharmFilm® technology, and two recent FDA approvals -Zuplenz®, the first approved prescription oral soluble film for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced, radiotherapy-induced, and postoperative nausea and vomiting, and Suboxone® sublingual film, the first sublingual film product for the maintenance treatment of opioid dependence.
MonoSol Rx's commercialization strategy for all PharmFilm® products is to partner with the innovator or other specialty pharma companies that can sell-in and manage product sales and marketing. PharmFilm® is also a tool to help sales and marketing partners differentiate in competitive markets while offering unique advantages over drugs dosed by traditional tablets, capsules and orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs).For existing and future partners, PharmFilm® formulations can also represent revenue-life cycle extensions for products with patent lives that have expired or are approaching expiration.
For press releases and other company information visit www.monosolrx.com.