Gail Standish

Standish said that the battle between her client Hospira Inc. and Eli Lilly called for "a very strategic war."

In the fall of 2010, Hospira sued Eli Lilly in the Northern District of Illinois for a declaration that Hospira's method of making its generic version of the blockbuster drug Gemzar didn't infringe a Lilly patent.

Hospira filed the suit to get Lilly to show its cards early, she said, and to prevent Lilly from having any opportunity to block the launch of Hospira's generic drug. Hospira Inc. v. Eli Lilly & Co., 10-CV-6275 (N.D. Ill.).

"We expected that Lilly might try to block import of Hospira's product by using the International Trade Commission, which has broader international reach than U.S. District Courts," Standish said. "As we expected, Lilly then filed an infringement claim with the ITC."

Standish led the defense, forcing Lilly to dismiss the ITC proceeding and pending foreign litigation with prejudice, and without any payment by Hospira or its suppliers.

Another of Standish's clients, Sun Pharmaceuticals, had its own skirmish with Lilly over making a generic version of Gemzar, and prevailed. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. v. Eli Lilly & Co., 07-CV-15087 (E.D. Mich.).

Standish argued and won summary judgment that one of Lilly's patents was invalid.

"With our strategy, we knocked two-and-a-half years off of Lilly's patent monopoly, and got the generic drug to market earlier," Standish said. "It's a very important cancer drug."

Standish currently represents Monsanto against DuPont in a complex antitrust, patent and contract matter. Monsanto Co. v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours, 09-CV-00686 (E.D. Mo.).

At issue, Monsanto developed and patented what she calls groundbreaking technology involving the genetic engineering of plants.

The case is set for trial in St. Louis in July.

- PAT BRODERICK

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