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The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on January 9, 2020, affirmed the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois’s ruling which held that a claim of Hospira’s Precedex Premix sedative was invalid for obviousness. Hospira Inc. v. Fresenius Kabi USA LLC, Fed. Cir., No. 19-1329, opinion 1/9/20.

Hospira owns a patent covering a premixed formulation of dexmedetomidine that doesn’t require dilution before it’s administered and “remains stable and active after prolonged storage,” according to the patent claim.

The company sued Fresenius Kabi for infringement, but the district court said the drug stability limitation in the claim, while not expressly disclosed in the prior art, would necessarily have been present.