A federal appeals court let stand Tuesday a U.S. ban on the sale of Roche Holding AG’s Mircera in a victory for local biotech Amgen Inc., which markets a profitable line of anemia drugs.

The Thousand Oaks company accused Roche in 2005 of patent infringement. Mircera, which is available in several other countries, is most comparable to Amgen’s original anemia drug Epogen, which had U.S. sales of $2.5 billion in 2008.

In addition to upholding the ban, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit partially overturned a lower court ruling in other parts of suit, and returned the case to a federal court in Massachusetts to rehear portions of the case.

Amgen said it was pleased by the ruling.

“Biotechnology innovation is complex, expensive and extremely risky,” said David Scott, Amgen general counsel, in a statement. “Companies and investors need appropriate intellectual property protection to justify the risk and to realize an appropriate return on investment.”

Roche said in a statement that it was “disappointed” by the ruling, but did not say whether it would pursue further appeals.

Amgen’s victory may be short lived in the marketplace. Congress is expected to approve the sale of generic versions of biotech drugs such as Epogen, which was approved in 1989 and has lost much of its patent protection. However, Amgen’s newer anemia drug, Aranesp, which had worldwide sales of $3.1 billion in 2008, is still under full patent protection.

Before the announcement, Amgen shares closed down 73 cents, or 1 percent, to $58.48 on the Nasdaq.