Appeals court sides with Amgen over Roche anemia drug patent infringement

WASHINGTON Amgen won a case against Roche over a drug for anemia that the latter has tried to get into the United States market in a U.S. appeals court Friday, affirming an Oct. 3 decision by a federal judge in Boston.

Amgen said that Roche’s drug Mircera (methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta) infringed on its patents for the drugs Aranesp (darbepoetin alfa) and Epogen (epoetin alfa). Mircera is on the market in Europe, and the Food and Drug Administration approved it for the U.S. market in 2007.

“Amgen is pleased that the Court of Appeals has affirmed the preliminary injunction barring Roche from selling its [peg-erythropoietin] product in the United States in violation of Amgen’s erythropoietin patents,” Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen said in a statement.