The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains two searchable online databases for approved products: the Purple Book (approved licensed biological products) and the Orange Book (approved drug products). The Orange Book provides details about an approved drug product, including the patents covering the approved drug product and the expiration dates of the patents and regulatory exclusivities, leaving investors, competitors, and the public in the dark as to when an approved biological product falls into the public domain.
For example, Sunosi® (solriamfetol hydrochloride) is a small molecule drug developed by Jazz Pharmaceuticals and was approved by the FDA on June 17, 2019 for the treatment of excessive sleepiness in adult patients with narcolepsy or obstructive sleep apnea. The NDA (new drug application) number, patents covering the product, the expiration dates of the patents, and regulatory exclusivity data are provided in the Orange Book.
Contrast this with Evenity® (romosozumab-aqqg), Amgen’s monoclonal antibody approved for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women at high risk for fracture. The Purple Book provides the approval date, proprietary name and generic name, BLA (biologics license application) number and type, date of first licensure, and a link to the product label. However, the Purple Book does not list the patents covering the product or regulatory exclusivity information. Thus, unlike patent litigation involving generic approvals for small molecule drugs, where the patents that will be involved are predictable based on the Orange Book listings, the patents that will be involved in litigation over a biosimilar approval are typically revealed for the first time during the litigation itself.
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