Roche to pay $505 million in damages to IGEN International.

IGEN International of the USA says a jury has awarded it $505 millionin damages in a case against Roche Diagnostics. Following a 10-week trial before a US District Court in Maryland, the jury unanimously found Roche "to have materially breached the license agreement, violated its duty to IGEN of good faith and fair dealing and engaged in unfair competition.".

The jury also confirmed IGEN's right to Roche products, including the Elecsys 1010, 2010 and E170 lines of clinical diagnostic immunoassay analyzers and tests developed for use on those systems (which included markers for cancer, cardiac disease and osteoporosis).

Samuel Wohlstadter, the US firm's chief executive, said the verdict "is a tremendous victory for Igen....and we are pleased that the jury concurred with our view that Roche has engaged in an egregious pattern of misconduct over the years." He added that his firm will now be able to compete in all diagnostic markets, "by opening doors to the multi-billion dollar immunoassay and molecular probe markets ."