Court affirms four Amgen EPO patents

The US District Court in Boston has issued its written decision upholding the prior jury verdict and court rulings regarding the infringement, validity and enforceability of 10 claims of four of biotechnology major Amgen's erythropoietin patents. The Court also ruled that Amgen is entitled to a permanent injunction prohibiting Swiss drug major Roche from selling its pegylated-erythropoietin product Mircera in the USA. Previously, the Court entered a preliminary injunction preventing Roche from selling peg-EPO, and the company has appealed that ruling. In this latest decision, the District Court stated that it would enter a permanent injunction once the appeal of the preliminary injunction is resolved.

In finding that a permanent injunction against Roche is justified, the District Court stated: "failure to enter a permanent injunction...would risk undermining the incentives for innovation that have produced, and hopefully will continue to produce, medical advances that extend and enhance the value of life. The Court therefore concludes that the public interest will not be disserved by a permanent injunction."

In a separate decision involving the biotechnology firm's suit against TKT and Aventis, the District Court upheld the validity of claim 1 of Amgen's US Patent No 5,955,422 that claims pharmaceutical compositions of human EPO and entered a permanent injunction prohibiting TKT and Aventis from selling its gene-activated EPO in the USA.