The NGAL cutoff and the Appeal

On the last day Høiberg sent in the documents for the appeal of the erroneous decision by the OD on the NGAL cutoff patent, to the  EPO:

By sending in the documents close to deadline Bioporto is maximizing the time that the patent is (as a minimum) upheld. Time is on our side…

BioPorto is besieged. That is actually a good way of describing the situation where 4 attackers confront one lone defendor, a defendor who is secure behind a solid legal framework (the cut-off-patent) . For those of us who has had the great pleasure of reading Sun Tzu – it’s actually good news – because as Sun Tzu said – The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided.

And it could have been avoided (and possibly still can) simply by signing: Agreements – Agreements and Agreements…

If you  have not yet had the pleasure of reading the superb thoughts on warfare – written close to 2300 years before the europeans had  Clausewitz  (the Americans probably still have noone 🙂 🙂 )  – its highly recommended : http://www.artofwarsuntzu.com/  The lack of strategist may explain why the “Gang of 4” under the leadership of American Abbott have decided to pursue the wrong venue.:)

Nonetheless – I have – as some other avid readers of medicoinvestor.com – read the Appeal document by Høiberg. Of course I am biased – but even so – I think the document is a tour de force from Høiberg

Not only does it demonstrate how mistakes were made by the OD in the field of simple arithmetics –  but with precision the documents points out that  the OD is to blame for A: not doing their homework properly – and B: not being willing to admit own mistakes.

But and this is in my point-of-view more troubeling – the 400 (irrelevant pages) documents flooded by Abbott only a few days before the proceeding – (and admitted as applicable by a weak OD)  contains falsifications and fabrications…

Yes – we are talking FRAUD here…

And it makes you wonder – is this really the standard you expect from the worlds leading diagnostic companies ? We  know the financial sector are overflowing with crooks and bandits – but it is really scary if the same applies to the diagnostic companies and the pharma-industry.

But the appeal-documents also contain some tongue-in-cheek-humour 🙂  Alere managed to shoot themselves not just in one foot – but surprisingly in both feet simultaneously when they made the following argument:

Perhaps Alere should have remembered this sound advice… “sometimes it is better to remain quiet and let others wonder whether you are stupid – rather than to speak out – and eliminate all doubt”  🙂