Baxter Healthcare Seeks Dismissal of Patent Suit

Baxter Healthcare Corp. said it asked a federal court to dismiss a patent-infringement claim against one of its drugs that helps stop bleeding in hemophiliacs. The drug is manufactured by Baxter’s Hyland division in Glendale.

The U.S. patent in question is held by The Scripps Research Institute and is licensed to a French pharmaceutical company, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc., which filed a motion Sept. 12 to stop Baxter Healthcare from selling its version of the drug.

Baxter Healthcare’s motion to dismiss the claim, which was filed in federal court in Delaware, asserts that its drug does not infringe the patent because the drug does not have the properties that are called for by the Scripps patent. Baxter Healthcare also has claimed in other court papers that the patent is invalid.

Baxter Healthcare, a unit of Baxter International Inc. of Deerfield, Ill., has been selling its drug--Hemofil (R) Antihemophilic Factor (Human)--for about four years.