Amgen settles with Coherus over arthritis treatment

Amgen and  Coherus Biosciences have settled a patent infringement dispute, after Coherus claimed that Amgen was infringing three of its patents.

In a filing on Monday, November 25, the  US District Court for the District of Delaware granted Coherus’ motion to dismiss the infringement suit.

In its filing, Coherus said the motion would also settle Amgen’s counterclaims of non-infringement and invalidity of its patents. It did not disclose any details of the settlement.

The dispute dates to January this year, when Coherus alleged that Amgen’s arthritis treatment, Amgevita, infringes three of its patents (US numbers 10,155,039; 10,159,732; 10,159,733).

Coherus claimed the patents cover the active ingredient in Amgen’s drug, adalimumab.

Amgevita was launched in October 2018 and is used in the treatment of inflammatory diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis.

The two companies are also involved in litigation over a patent which claims combinations of different kinds of salts.

In 2016, Coherus filed an abbreviated Biologic License Application seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to sell a biosimilar version of Amgen’s Neulasta, a drug given to patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Amgen then sued Coherus in 2017 under the doctrine of equivalents, alleging that the salt combination used in the process of making Coherus’ biosimilar didn’t match any of the three expressly claimed salt combinations in the ‘707 patent.

But, in July this year, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that, under the doctrine of prosecution history estoppel, Amgen’s suit could not succeed because the patent had been rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office in light of prior art.

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