Merck's last crack at salvaging a $2.5B jury verdict in hep C patent showdown is shot down by appeals court
In December 2013, Gilead announced the first pill that could cure hepatitis C. The same week, Idenix Pharmaceuticals announced it was suing Gilead for patent infringement, a lawsuit that would eventually demand over $2 billion from the US drugmaker.
Nearly six years later, that dispute appears to have finally concluded. In a decision that may ripple across pharma, a federal appeals court ruled Gilead – which acquired the hep c drug when it purchased Pharmasset in 2011 – did not owe damages to Idenix, now a subsidiary of Merck. The ruling affirms a 2018 reversal of a 2016 jury decision that originally awarded $2.54 billion to Idenix.
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