The lawsuit case between Amgen and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) took a new turn as the jury ordered a decision in the favor of Amgen. According to the decision, Regeneron and Sanofi infringed patent laws; hence, they would have to pay the penalty to Amgen. A couple of days after the decision came out, Regeneron has stated that it would appeal against the jury decision in the PCSK9 lawsuit case.
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The jury declared both the patents owned by Amgen to be valid and that Regeneron and Sanofi had failed to prove their point regarding U.S. Patent Nos. 8,859,741 and 8,829,165. As soon as the decision came out, Amgen’s shares rose, whereas Regeneron and Sanofi witnessed adverse results in the market. Now both of them have openly said that they disagree with court’s ruling and would appeal against this decision.
Regeneron and Sanofi have also noted that the current decision doesn’t affect their right to sell their PCSK9 inhibitor aka Praluent in the market. Even though the jury has declared its decision, proceedings with regard to the amount of royalty payment are yet to take place. A separate hearing will take place to decide the penalty amount.
It all started in October 2014 when Amgen filed a lawsuit against Regeneron and Sanofi in U.S. District Court of Delaware. Through this lawsuit filing, Amgen intended to stop these two firms from manufacturing and selling Praluent. Reports claim that both Praluent and Repatha are used to prevent the formation of PCSK9 protein, which reduces liver’s ability to remove LDL-C (bad cholesterol) from human blood.
Both the drugs were launched in the market at the same time, which affected their sales, and further prompted Amgen to file a case against Regeneron. So far neither Regeneron nor Sanofi has appealed against jury decision. It will be great to see how they deal with this issue in an effective manner.
