Judge Sue L. Robinson recently denied defendant Alexion’s motion to dismiss Novartis’s complaint for improper joinder. Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, Inc. v. Medimmune, LLC, et al., C.A. No. 11-084-SLR (D. Del. Aug. 2, 2012). Novartis’s complaint alleged that defendants infringed its patent by, among other things, the use of “a commercial gene expression system manufactured by non-party Lonza Group AG . . as a common step in what may otherwise be divergent manufacturing processes.” Id. at 2-3. Alexion argued that joinder was improper because the defendants use differing manufacturing processes that result in different drug products. Id. at 5. Judge Robinson noted, however, that because defendants modify and incorporate Lonza’s system into their own manufacturing processes, “there is necessarily some degree of overlap in defendants’ manufacturing processes[.]” Id. at 6. Judge Robinson acknowledged that defendants didn’t have a “tangible business or legal relationship[,]” but noted that the absence of such a relationship is “just one of several considerations when determining whether defendants’ actions are part of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences.” Id. In addition, the court found that it would be inefficient “to construe claims and determine invalidity separately for each defendant[,] and the parties’ stipulated protective order would alleviate any concerns that defendants would have to disclose sensitive business information to co-defendants who are also potential competitors. Id. at 7.
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