Jury Awards Merck $200M In Hep C Patent Dispute
There will be a separate hearing to determine what Gilead Sciences owes the company in royalties.
The Wall Street Journal:
Gilead To Pay Merck $200 Million In Damages Over Hepatitis C Drug Patents
A federal jury in California ordered Gilead Sciences Inc. to pay Merck & Co. and a partner $200 million for infringing two Merck patents in a case involving Gilead’s two blockbuster drugs for treating hepatitis C, Merck said Thursday. The award follows the jury’s decision on Tuesday upholding the validity of two patents held by Merck and its partner Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. that Merck says should entitle the companies to a portion of the sales of Gilead’s drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni. (Winslow, 3/24)
Reuters:
Gilead Ordered To Pay Merck $200M In Drug Patent Dispute
A federal jury on Thursday ordered Gilead Sciences Inc to pay Merck & Co $200 million in damages for infringing two Merck patents related to a lucrative cure for hepatitis C. The damages award is far less than the $2 billion Merck had demanded. On Tuesday, the same jury in San Jose, California, upheld the validity of the patents, which lie at the heart of the dispute over Gilead's blockbuster drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni. Together the medicines had more than $20 billion in U.S. sales in 2014 and 2015. (3/24)