J&J;, Amgen Settle Drug Patent Dispute

Johnson & Johnson and its licensing partner, Amgen Inc., said they settled a long-standing patent dispute with Roche Holding and an American Home Products Corp. unit over their anemia drug, erythropoietin.

Financial terms weren’t disclosed. J&J; and Amgen had sued Roche, which sells a version of the drug in Europe called NeoRecormon. Roche licenses the drug from American Home Products’ Genetics Institute Inc.

The settlement allows Roche to continue selling its product in Europe, said J&J; spokesman Marc Monseau. The agreement comes three months after Amgen won a British court ruling that Roche, Aventis and Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. had infringed the biotechnology company’s patent.

All lawsuits, which were pending in about 30 countries, will be dropped, a Roche spokesman said.

A spokesman for AHP declined to comment.

Thousand Oaks-based Amgen sells the drug as Epogen in the U.S. and J&J; sells it as Procrit in the U.S. and Eprex in Europe.

Amgen shares fell $1.19 to $57.53 on Nasdaq, while J&J; rose 38 cents to $52.50 on the NYSE.