Amgen starts legal action over Roche patent breach

The world’s largest biotechnology company Amgen has begun legal action against Roche for violating some of its patents.

The company accused Roche of infringing on six of its US patents, which prevent other pharmaceutical firms from making and selling recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO) products. Roche wishes to introduce an EPO product to the US market but has so far been prevented from doing so because of Amgen’s patents.

A new product from Roche, Cera, attempts to avoid Amgen’s patents by using a different chemical makeup from its EPO product NeoRecormon. But Amgen are convinced that Cera still infringes on several of its patents.

Christopher Raymond of Robert W Baird & Co told BioWorld Online: “My sense is that they will be trying to show Cera is essentially a pegylated version of NeoRecormon.

“And it’s my sense that Roche is going to be trying to show that it’s not. It’s an entirely different compound and stands outside the picket fence that protects Amgen’s patents.”

EPO products are used to increase the number of red blood cells within a patient. Amgen’s EPO drug Epogen is used to help suffers of kidney disease who experience low red blood cell counts

© Adfero Ltd