Judge Bars Roche From Selling Anemia Drug
3 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // February 28th, 2008 // 3:47 pm
Unless the drugmaker meets certain conditions. For now, though, US District Court Judge William Young told Roche that sales of its Mircera drug are on hold due to an ongoing dispute with Amgen over patents for its Aranesp medication.
Last October, you may recall, a jury decided Roche violated Amgen’s patents and, since then, Roche extended an offer to resolve the litigation. At Young’s urging, Roche offered to sell Mircera for about 5 percent less than what Amgen charges for its Aranesp medication and pay a royalty of 20 percent on US net sales for the duration of Amgen’s patents.
Amgen promptly rejected the offer, claiming its rival plans to charge high prices to the government, and contended Roche has all the “sincerity of a snake-oil salesman.” To move the ball forward, Young gave Roche several conditions under which he would allow Mircera to be sold in the US. These include paying a slightly higher royalty to Amgen and guaranteeing that Mircera pricing won’t be higher than pricing for existing anemia meds.
Roche has three months to weigh the offer - just enough time for George Abercrombie, who heads Roche’s US pharma biz, to rework his forecast and decide how many jobs may be lost if he can’t get Mircera to doctors.
Nathan
It seems bizzare to me that a jury can make decisions in a patent infringement case. Shouldn’t the USPTO or a trained federal judge make those decisions?
I sure wouldn’t want the fate of my patents hanging on the opinions of laypeople… This is a highly specialized field that we work in.
David
This decision has far greater reach than Amgen and Mircera. This judge has effectively said that patent judgements are for sale if the price is right. That is, if you can save Medicare some money, I will negotiate a judgement for you. I would suggest that both biotech and pharma wake up to see how this ruling could affect them by setting a very dangerous precedent.
peter
What’s bizarre is that Amgen can make such dodgy patents last so long, that they are allowed to pay (bribe?) doctors to (over) prescribe their drugs, and that patent law can prevent better medications from reaching the market. What a system!