Amgen 'Disappointed' In Court Decision To Reverse Praluent Sales Ban

Amgen, Inc. AMGN lost a major patent case Thursday when a U.S. appeals court reversed a ban on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc REGN and Sanofi SA (ADR) SNY’s Praluent sales.

“Our ability to discover and deliver new medicines that benefit patients depends on meaningful patent protection and enforcement that enable significant investments in drug development and clinical trials,” an Amgen spokesperson told Benzinga. “We are disappointed by the Court’s action in reversing and remanding the district court’s decision with respect to validity of our patents based on select pre-trial rulings.”

The company confirmed it will continue its three-year fight over ownership of the cholesterol-reducing drug.

“The Court, however, also rejected a main argument brought by defendants in seeking to overturn the injunction,” the spokesperson said. “We firmly believe in the validity of our patents and we look forward to reasserting our rights in court.”

Rights to the Praluent formula have been in question since 2014. The courts had issued a temporary ban in January but within a month awarded Regeneron and Sanofi the license to continue sales.

At time of publication, Amgen was trading down 1.8 percent, while Regeneron and Sanofi were up 1.8 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively. Regeneron was halted for trading at 9:59 a.m. ET.