Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. et al v. Sandoz Inc.
Filing
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ORDER Granting 216 Defendant's Motion to Seal. Docket Nos. 212 and 214 shall remain under seal. Signed by Magistrate Judge Nancy J. Koppe on 02/25/2014. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - AC)
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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DISTRICT OF NEVADA
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SPECTRUM PHARMACEUTICALS, INC, et al,
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Plaintiffs,
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vs.
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SANDOZ INC.,
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Defendant.
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Case No. 2:12-cv-00111-GMN-NJK
ORDER GRANTING MOTION
TO SEAL
(Docket No. 216)
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Pending before the Court is Defendant’s motion to seal. Docket No. 216. Pursuant to the
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procedure outlined in Kamakana v. City & County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006),
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and the Court, see Docket No. 152, Defendant filed the Declaration of Anders T. Aannestad in support
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of its motion. Docket No. 217. The motion seeks to file under seal portions of Defendant’s Proposed
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Motion for Summary Judgment of Non-Infringement of Claims 5-9 (sealed version: Docket No. 212;
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public version: Docket No. 213); and Exhibits 1-13 and 15-16 attached to the Declaration of John R.
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Lanham in Support of Sandoz’s Motion for Summary Judgment of Non-Infringment of Claims 5-9
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(sealed version: Docket No. 214; public version: Docket No. 215).
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For the reasons discussed below, the Court hereby GRANTS the motion to seal.
I.
STANDARD
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The Ninth Circuit has held that there is a strong presumption of public access to judicial records.
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See Kamakana v. City & County of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006); Foltz v. State Farm
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Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 (9th Cir. 2003). A party seeking to file documents under seal
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bears the burden of overcoming that presumption. Pintos v. Pac. Creditors Ass’n, 605 F.3d 665, 678
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(9th Cir. 2010) (quoting Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178). Parties “who seek to maintain the secrecy of
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documents attached to dispositive motions must meet the high threshold of showing that ‘compelling
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reasons’ support secrecy.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1180.1 Those compelling reasons must outweigh the
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competing interests of the public in having access to the judicial records and understanding the judicial
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process. Id. at 1178-79; see also Pintos, 605 F.3d at 679 & n.6 (court must weigh “relevant factors,”
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including the public’s interest in understanding the judicial process). The Ninth Circuit has indicated
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that “‘compelling reasons’ sufficient to outweigh the public’s interest in disclosure and justify sealing
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court records exist when such ‘court files might have become a vehicle for improper purposes,’ such as
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the use of records to . . . release trade secrets.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179.
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II.
ANALYSIS
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In support of the motion to seal, Defendant submitted the declaration of Anders T. Aannestad
listing Defendant’s justification for sealing each of the documents at issue. Docket No. 217.
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Concerning Exhibits 2-13 and 15-16 attached to the Lanham Declaration, Aannestad states that
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Defendant filed those exhibits under seal because they contain sensitive information relating to
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Defendant’s Abbreviated New Drug Application (“ANDA”) No. 203563 and Defendant’s business
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practices. Id. at 2-5. That information, Defendant represents, includes proprietary, trade secret, business,
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and technical information that is presently confidential and unavailable to the public including, without
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limitation, information concerning the manufacture of Defendant’s proposed ANDA product, the
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composition of Defendants ANDA product, and Defendant’s specific efforts to obtain United States
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Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) approval of its proposed ANDA product. Id. Defendant states
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that disclosure of such information could injure its procedural posture, especially given that Defendant
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competes in the competitive and time-sensitive generic pharmaceutical industry. Id. Further, such
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Kamakana and Foltz involve non-parties’ attempts to obtain sealed court documents. The same
analysis and standards apply to a party’s motion to seal. See Pintos, 605 F.3d at 679 n.5; see also
Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1182 n.9 (for the case before it, noting that “[t]he effective bottom line is that
the district court was determining whether documents should be sealed”).
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information is maintained as confidential by the FDA and the FDA does not disclose the existence of
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a proposed ANDA product until it has been approved. Id. Finally, Defendant notes that some of the
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exhibits, specifically exhibits 4, 9, 15, and 16, were previously sealed by the Court when attached to
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other filings. Id.
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Concerning the redacted portions of Defendant’s motion for summary judgment, Defendant
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explains that the redacted portions disclose information from the above discussed exhibits and thus that
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information should also be sealed. Id. at 5.
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The Court has reviewed each of the exhibits as well as the redacted portions of the motion for
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summary judgment and concludes that they all contain proprietary, trade secret, and technical
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information which warrants keeping them sealed. Further, the Court finds that both good cause and
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compelling reasons exist to seal this information that overcome the presumption of public access, and
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that Exhibits 1-13 and 15-16 attached to the Declaration of John R. Lanham cannot be easily redacted
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while leaving meaningful information available to the public. Therefore, the Court GRANTS the motion
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to seal.
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III.
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CONCLUSION
For the reasons above and for good cause shown, Defendant’s motion to seal (Docket No. 216)
is hereby GRANTED. Docket Nos. 212 and 214 shall remain under seal.
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IT IS SO ORDERED.
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DATED: February 25, 2014.
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______________________________________
NANCY J. KOPPE
United States Magistrate Judge
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