An eight-year-old patent suit over the blockbuster drug Enbrel, which put Seattle’s Immunex Corp. on the map, is over. The winner? Amgen, which bought Immunex six years ago.
Back in 1999, the Israel Bio-Engineering Project sued Immunex, and later Amgen, charging the patent for Enbrel infringed on its own. A U.S. federal appeals court ruled today, though, that IBEP could not establish it was the sole owner of the patent. Thus, it cannot seek royalties off sales of Enbrel.
Enbrel, which treats rheumatoid arthritis, generated sales approaching $3 billion in 2006. Here’s the story of today’s ruling from MarketWatch, http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/court-rules-amgen-enbrel-related-patent/story.aspx?guid=%7BCB1A1B77-6EA6-4779-9B71-AA26BD837C39%7D.
Amgen’s shares, by the way, were down 2 percent. News of the court ruling didn’t really get out until after the markets closed, however.
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