No­var­tis los­es biosim­i­lar ap­peal as court up­holds a 31-year mo­nop­oly by Am­gen's En­brel

A new court rul­ing has strength­ened Am­gen’s grip on the IP es­tate around En­brel, keep­ing biosim­i­lars of the au­toim­mune and in­flam­ma­to­ry drug at bay un­til 2029.

No­var­tis, the patent chal­lenger, isn’t throw­ing in the tow­el yet. In a state­ment not­ing the failed ap­peal, its gener­ics di­vi­sion San­doz not­ed its re­view­ing op­tions, “in­clud­ing po­ten­tial ap­peal to US Supreme Court.”

It’s been al­most four years since the FDA ap­proved Erelzi, San­doz’s copy­cat ver­sion of En­brel. While sales of the Pfiz­er-part­nered drug in the US — the mar­ket Am­gen is in charge of — have dipped slight­ly dur­ing that time, it re­mains a sol­id megablock­buster with 2019 rev­enue slight­ly above $5 bil­lion.

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