Coherus seeks IPR of Amgen patent
Biopharma company Coherus BioSciences has filed a petition for inter partes review (IPR) of a patent controlled by Amgen.
Coherus filed its petition at the US Patent and Trademark Office, seeking invalidation of US patent number 8,163,55.
The patent, called “Human TNF receptor”, concerns non-soluble proteins and soluble or insoluble fragments, which bind tumour necrosis factor (TNF).
According to Coherus, the ‘522 patent is generally directed to a method for making etanercept, the pharmaceutically active component of Enbrel.
Immunex, a biotechnology company owned by Amgen, produces Enbrel, which is used to treat arthritis.
In a statement published yesterday, Coherus added that it plans to file an IPR in the near future seeking invalidation of related US patent number 8,063,182.
The ‘182 patent is also controlled by Amgen and is generally directed to the etanercept protein.
Dennis Lanfear, president and CEO of Coherus, said: “The ‘182 and ‘522 patents do not expire until 2028 and 2029. This could result in over 30 years of patent coverage for Enbrel.”
He added that this is an “anti-competitive and unjustified distortion” in the patent system that “threatens to inflict another dozen years of massive costs on the healthcare system given Amgen’s history of substantial price increases for this drug which already total over 400% since launch”.
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