Amgen Antitrust Claims Revived Amid Patent Application Row

The Open Markets Institute has filed a brief in support of reviving US antitrust claims against Amgen over its Enbrel patent applications. According to OMI, Amgen's purchase of Roche's pending patent applications granted it an exclusive right to exploit the idea.

OMI argues that this exclusivity was used as an economic weapon to exclude competitors in the market for Enbrel biosimilars. In its brief, OMI states, 'Whereas Roche would have likely licensed the pending patents to manufacturers of biosimilar versions of Enbrel or used them to enter the market for Enbrel on its own, Amgen deployed them as an economic weapon to exclude competitors.'

The Sherman Act applies to acquisitions of all kinds of assets, including patents and patent applications, OMI emphasizes. The Institute is supporting Sandoz's antitrust claims against Amgen in a US appeals court.