COPENHAGEN, Denmark, May 31, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Forward Pharma A/S (NASDAQ:FWP) (“Forward” or the “Company”) today announced the filing of the notice of appeal of the PTAB decision that ended the interference proceeding between the Forward 11/576,871 patent application (the “’871 application”) and an issued Biogen patent. The appeal was filed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) and seeks to have the decision overturned and the interference reinstated. The appeal is expected to last ten months or longer.
Forward has retained legal representation from a specialist appeals team at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, led by name partner Kathleen Sullivan, J.D.
Kathleen Sullivan is widely recognized as one of the top appellate lawyers in the United States. She is the former Dean of Stanford Law School, has argued eleven times before the United States Supreme Court and successfully argued numerous high-profile appeals.
“Forward now officially initiates the appeal of the U.S. PTAB interference decision with the Federal Circuit, and looks forward to working with Kathleen Sullivan and her team to get the decision overturned,” said Dr. Claus Bo Svendsen, CEO of Forward.
About Forward Pharma:
Forward Pharma A/S is a Danish biopharmaceutical company that commenced development in 2005 of FP187, a proprietary formulation of DMF for the treatment of inflammatory and neurological indications. The Company owns a significant intellectual property (IP) portfolio related to DMF formulations. The Company granted Biogen an irrevocable license to all of its IP through the recent License Agreement and received from Biogen a non-refundable cash fee of $1.25 billion in February 2017. The Company has the opportunity to receive royalties from Biogen on sales of Tecfidera® or other DMF products for MS, dependent on, among other things, successfully appealing the U.S. interference and a favorable outcome in Europe with respect to the EP2801355 opposition proceeding.
The principal executive offices are located at Østergade 24A, 1st Floor, 1100 Copenhagen K, Denmark and our American Depositary Shares are publicly traded on NASDAQ Stock Market (FWP). For more information about the Company, please visit our web site at http://forward-pharma.com.
Publicly available information from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit can be located at https://ecf.cafc.uscourts.gov/
Forward Looking Statements:
Certain statements in this press release may constitute “forward-looking statements” of Forward Pharma A/S within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements which contain language such as “believe”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “would”, “may”, and “potential”. Forward-looking statements are predictions only, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed in such statements. Many such risks, uncertainties and other factors are taken into account as part of our assumptions underlying these forward-looking statements and include, among others, risks related to the following: the satisfaction of certain conditions, and the accuracy of certain representations of the Company, in the Settlement and License Agreement entered into with subsidiaries of Biogen Inc. and certain other parties thereto; our ability to obtain, maintain, enforce and defend issued patents with royalty-bearing claims; our ability to prevail in the interference proceeding after all appeals and obtain issuance of the ’871 application; our ability to prevail in or obtain a favorable decision in the ‘355 European opposition proceedings, after all appeals; the expected timing for key activities and an ultimate ruling in such legal proceedings; the issuance and term of our patents; future sales of Tecfidera®, including impact on such sales from competition, generic challenges, regulatory involvement and pricing pressures; the scope, validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights in general and the impact on us of patents and other intellectual property rights of third parties; the timing, amount (if any) and tax consequences of any distribution to shareholders; the timing for any planned announcements of such distribution plans; and our ability to generate revenue from product sales in the U.S. directly or through an assignee of our U.S. co-exclusive license rights in the event Biogen does not obtain an exclusive license from us in the U.S. Certain of these and other risk factors are identified and described in detail in certain of our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2016. We are providing this information as of the date of this release and do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Forward Pharma A/S Investor Relations Contact:
Forward Pharma A/S
Dr. Claus Bo Svendsen, Chief Executive Officer
Investor Relations
investors@forward-pharma.com
The Trout GroupJohn Grazianojgraziano@troutgroup.com
+1 (646) 378 2942
Forward Pharma A/S
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