Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Novartis Pharma AG

Background

Regeneron asked to file the unredacted version of its First Amended Complaint under seal and to maintain redactions in the publicly filed version. The request was made after Regeneron conferred with Novartis Pharma AG, Novartis Technology LLC, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, and Vetter Pharma International GmbH. The defendants did not oppose the request.

The redactions concerned confidential business information from agreements involving Regeneron and Vetter, and Novartis and Vetter. The information included nonpublic terms of patent licensing agreements, commercial development agreements, and later amendments. Regeneron stated that the information had been designated for disclosure only to outside counsel under the protective order.

Legal standard

The court applied the three-part test from the Second Circuit’s decision in Lugosch v. Pyramid Co. of Onondaga. Under that test, the court determines whether the materials are judicial documents, assesses the strength of the common-law presumption that judicial records should be open to the public, and balances competing interests against that presumption.

The court noted that the existence of a confidentiality order does not by itself justify avoiding disclosure. The court still had to evaluate the proposed redactions.

Ruling

The court granted Regeneron’s motion to file the unredacted First Amended Complaint under seal and to maintain the redactions in the publicly filed version. After reviewing the proposed redactions, the court found that they were narrowly tailored to protect competitive business information. It concluded that the sensitivity of the information outweighed the presumption of public access.