Federal judge upholds verdict in PCSK9 patent legislation
A federal judge on Jan. 3 upheld an earlier verdict that found Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals infringed on two patents developed by Amgen, Reuters reports.
Amgen filed a lawsuit in October 2014 against Sanofi and Regeneron for infringing on patents pertaining to evolocumab (Repatha). Evolocumab is Amgen’s proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), which the FDA approved in August 2015 lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
In March, a Delaware jury ruled in favor of Amgen and said Sanofi and Regeneron infringed on seven of Amgen’s patents. Sanofi and Regeneron manufacture and market alirocumab (Praluent), which the FDA approved in July 2015.
Sanofi and Regeneron plan on appealing the verdict to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Reuters. The judge has also not decided whether to block the companies from selling alirocumab.
Read the full Reuters article below:
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.