Amgen Appeals Patent Ruling in Dispute Over Anemia Drug

Amgen has filed an appeal to a federal court order that would have allowed both the Thousand Oaks biotechnology company and its rival, Genetics Institute, to keep rights to a lucrative anti-anemia drug without having to pay each other royalties.

Industry analysts and a spokeswoman for Genetics Institute, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., said they expected Amgen’s challenge, which was filed Tuesday in Federal Appeals Court in the District of Columbia. It is only the latest move in a drawn-out patent dispute over erythropoietin, or EPO, a drug for treating anemia in patients suffering from kidney disease and other ailments.

Last month, U.S. District Judge William G. Young in Boston ordered the two companies essentially to share the market for EPO, which analysts predict could grow to $1 billion a year worldwide in a few years. In particular, Young called on Amgen, which already sells EPO to kidney disease patients, to drop its objections to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s review of Genetics Institute’s version of the drug.

But Amgen claims that Young’s order would “impinge” on the FDA’s jurisdiction over new drugs.

Marc S. Ehrenthal, a biotechnology analyst with Vector Securities, said he believes that Amgen’s filing is meant to “maintain the status quo” until other appeals in the complicated patent suit have been heard.