On Nov. 17, 2015, an Illinois judge issued a final ruling in favor of Nashville-based Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a patent case associated with its Acetadote® product.

The specialty pharmaceutical company focused on hospital acute care and gastroenterology developed, registered, and launched Acetadote, building it into a standard of care for the leading cause of poisoning in the U.S.

The challenged patent has claims associated with Cumberland’s next-generation formulation of Acetadote that is free of EDTA or any other preservative, chelating, or stabilizing agent. Through this new formulation of Acetadote, Cumberland has been able to retain significant market share in spite of generic competition that utilizes the old formulation of the product. By ruling in Cumberland’s favor, the court upheld the validity of the patent, which encompasses Cumberland’s EDTA-Free formulation and has a term until August 2025. The court also granted a permanent injunction preventing the challenger from marketing a generic version of Acetadote before the expiration of Cumberland’s patent in August 2025.