Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche is taking its rival Novartis to court in the US. Roche subsidiary Genentech has filed suit in New Jersey District Court against Novartis subsidiary Sandoz for patent infringement on the lung drug Esbriet.
This is according to the indictment filed on Monday, cited by the Keystone-SDA news agency. The case was first reported by Reuters.
Genentech complains that Sandoz started selling a generic version of Esbriet in mid-May 2022, even though Sandoz had not applied for a license. As a result, Genentech's patent had been infringed, it said. The generic displacement of Esbriet has caused significant financial harm to the Roche subsidiary, it said. Esbriet had sales of more than $740 million (CHF650 million) in the U.S. alone in 2021.
Genentech is now seeking unspecified damages including lost profits and/or an appropriate royalty. Sandoz is also expected to pay the legal costs.
Genentech's Esbriet is used to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a fatal chronic lung disease with no cure. Roche earned over $1 billion worldwide from Esbriet in 2021, but sales fell to under $820 million in 2022, according to Reuters.