Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc. said late Tuesday that it has received licensing rights to a patent that is important both to ImClone Inc.’s cancer drug Erbitux and a competing Amgen drug that could gain U.S. regulatory approval next week.

A U.S. District Court judge on Monday sided with Yeda Research & Development Co., the licensing arm of the Israel-based Weizman Institute of Science, in its three-year patent lawsuit against ImClone. Yeda claimed that three of its researchers discovered the process used to deliver Erbitux. New York-based ImClone had licensed exclusive rights to the patent from French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis SA.

The court’s ruling, and Amgen’s licensing deal with Yeda, comes as Amgen awaits a U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision on its colon cancer drug, panitumumab, which is expected to come by Sept. 28. An Amgen spokeswoman declined to say whether the company was concerned that any patent uncertainty might affect the FDA’s decision or the product’s roll-out.

Panitumumab, which Amgen plans to market under the name Vectibix, is expected to have an advantage over Erbitux because the generically modified mice used in its development do not leave behind mice proteins that can cause a human immune system reaction.

The Yeda patent deals with using a type of antibody in conjunction with chemotherapy to fight cancer. ImClone is expected to appeal the court’s decision.