Trial Set in Amgen Patent Dispute

Amgen Inc. will go to trial in October to determine whether Transkaryotic Therapies Inc. can sell a drug that would rival the Thousand Oaks-based company’s $2-billion-a-year anemia medication Epogen.

The date was set Monday as a federal judge in Boston heard arguments on the scope of the case. Amgen claims Transkaryotic’s drug Dynepo would infringe four patents.

Transkaryotic, based in Cambridge, Mass., has been blocked from selling Dynepo because of patent litigation.

“There are significant differences in the process” of making Dynepo, Transkaryotic lawyer Herb Schwartz told U.S. District Judge William G. Young at Monday’s hearing.

“They point to no difference in the product that’s produced,” countered Amgen lawyer Lloyd R. Day. “It’s identical.”

The dispute centers on a method of producing the human protein erythropoietin, or EPO, from mammal cells in a way that has therapeutic uses. Amgen says its scientists invented the method that can be used to increase red blood cells and treat anemia.

Transkaryotic argues that EPO occurs in nature and that Amgen’s patents cover only a method of processing it from certain mammals.

In Nasdaq trading, Amgen shares rose $1.18 to $69.89 and Transkaryotic’s fell 64 cents to $11.35. The news came after the market closed.