A patent case against Novo Nordisk in the United States will be allowed to continue, according to a decision from the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent Office on Wednesday.

It is the copy producer Viatris that has challenged three of the patents behind Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 molecule Semaglutide because the copy producer believes that the patents are actually based on the diabetes drug Liraglutide and should therefore be set aside.

Earlier this week, the tribunal refused to conduct an ”inter partes review” of two of the challenges, but on Wednesday it was decided that the case regarding the third challenge will continue.

”Inter partes review” is a special legal process in the US patent system and is a way to challenge the validity of an issued patent. The process allows a third party to request the US Patent Office to examine the validity of a patent.

In an inter partes review, a panel of experts within the patent office reviews the legal requirements that must be met for a patent to be validly issued. The process is faster and cheaper than an actual trial, and the aim is to reduce the number of weak or invalidly issued patents and thus avoid long and expensive court cases.

Novo Nordisk shares rose 1.4% in Copenhagen trading on Wednesday. Despite the announcement, the group’s secondary listing in the US continues to rise by 1.3%.

Viatris is the result of the merger of the two pharmaceutical manufacturers Mylan and Upjohn.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Mads Oddershede)