Amgen shares climb after judge upholds Repatha patents
A ruling in a patent law case regarding a new anti-cholesterol drug involving Thousand Oaks biotech giant Amgen has skyrocketed Amgen shares.
Amgen filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Sanofi and Regeneron in the U.S. District Court of Delaware in October 2014 to block the development and sale of the drug Praluent, which was developed by Regeneron and licensed to Sanofi.
Late on Jan. 5, the judge barred the sale of Praluent for 12 years until two patents expire that are held by rival Amgen, which developed the competing drug Repatha, according to a news release.
Amgen shares rose 2.5 percent to $156.78 on Jan. 6.
The injunction has been delayed 30 days to allow the companies to appeal, which Sanofi and Regeneron have said they intend to do because “the best interests of patients will be greatly disserved by an injunction preventing access to Praluent,” they said in a statement.
“We are pleased with today’s decision that recognizes Amgen is entitled to an injunction against further infringement of our patent rights,” Amgen Chairman and CEO Robert Bradway said in a news release. “Sanofi and Regeneron admitted that they had infringed our patents, and the jury upheld our patents as valid. Protecting intellectual property is essential to our industry as it reinforces the incentives for the large and risky investments we make in innovation to bring forward new medicines to treat serious diseases.”
Repatha and Praluent are used to inhibit a protein that lowers the liver’s ability to remove bad cholesterol.
• Contact Alex Kacik at [email protected].
