Redwood City, Calif.-based Coherus BioSciences Inc. said an appeals court affirmed an earlier judgment that the company's Udenyca does not infringe on Amgen Inc.'s Neulasta patent.
Launched in the U.S. in January, Coherus' Udenyca is a biosimilar to Amgen's blockbuster white blood cell booster Neulasta.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in March dismissed Amgen's lawsuit alleging that Coherus' biosimilar medicine infringed on its patents relating to Neulasta.
Neulasta helps in the growth of new white blood cells, which protect against the risk of infection following chemotherapy. It helped generate $4.53 billion in 2017 revenues for Amgen, including $3.93 billion from the U.S. alone.
Amgen filed an appeal with the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit against the judgment. However, the appeals court upheld the earlier court decision and barred Amgen from succeeding on its infringement claim.
In May, the companies settled a trade secret dispute relating to Udenyca. The settlement allowed Coherus to continue marketing the drug by paying a mid-single-digit royalty to Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen for five years.
