Amgen wins certain summary judgment motions in Mircera case

In January 2007, IPBiz quoted Bear Stearns concerning Amgen's case against Roche over Mircera: "We think this means Amgen's probability of winning its patent infringement case has increased dramatically."

In a summary judgment ruling, D. Mass. said that Roche's Mircera drug, a pegylated-erythropoetin (peg-EPO) drug used to treat anemia, infringes on an Amgen patent. In a separate summary judgment, the court also ruled in Amgen's favor on certain Roche defenses against the patents-in-suit. [see Forbes]

HOWEVER, validity is yet to be determined. Roche noted: "While we disagree with the Judge on the matter of infringement, the ruling does not determine the ultimate validity of Amgen's patents."

IPBiz notes that one can only infringe a valid patent.