Roche Offers Amgen Higher Fee

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Still hoping to get its anemia drug Mircera onto the U.S. market despite a legal challenge from Amgen Inc., Roche Holding AG has agreed to pay Amgen a higher royalty fee than it proposed earlier, Wall Street Journal reports.


Amgen is asking the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts to grant a permanent injunction barring Roche from selling Mircera in the U.S. Last month, the court issued a preliminary injunction but said it might consider allowing Mircera onto the market if Roche agreed to five conditions. Roche agreed to the court’s conditions in a filing Monday.


It isn’t clear when the court will rule.


Among the court’s conditions, which Roche agreed to in its latest filing, was that Roche pay Amgen a royalty of 22.5% on sales of Mircera. Previously, Roche had offered to pay Amgen a royalty of 20%, which Amgen called “grossly inadequate.”


In its new filing, Roche also agreed to the court’s demand that Roche set Mircera’s price at or below Epogen’s for the remainder of the life of Amgen’s patents.


The case continues from last year, when a jury concluded that Mircera infringes numerous patents protecting Amgen’s anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen.


An Amgen spokesman said, in an e-mail response to questions, “We believe a permanent injunction is the appropriate remedy in this case and look forward to the Court’s decision on that matter.”


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