Amgen wins in Roche Mircera patent suit

The US Federal District Court in Boston, USA, has come out in favor of domestic biotechnology leader Amgen, ruling that Swiss drug major's Roche's developmental anemia product Mircera, a pegylated erythropoietin, infringes 11 of the US firm's patent claims.

Commenting on the jury's decision, Amgen said that it believes Roche's product provides no clinical or patient benefit over its own products, Epogen (epoeitin alfa) and Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa).

For its part, Roche says that it is currently evaluating legal options, including the possibility of an appeal. It notes that Mircera is currently awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval, which is expected on November 14, and was cleared in the European Union in July and in Switzerland and Norway in September (Marketletters passim). Analysts at Lehman Brothers saw a low likelihood of Roche winning the patent suit, and now assume a 10% probability of Mircera launching in 2010.