Americans with psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis will have to wait much longer for low-priced copycat versions of their weekly Enbrel injections. Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) won an appeals court ruling on Wednesday that will block the sale of Erlelzi from Novartis (NYSE: NVS) and all other biosimilar versions of Enbrel until 2029 at the earliest.
Enbrel is a tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitor that earned its first FDA approval all the way back in 1998. A company called Immunex bought patents to Enbrel from Roche, and then Amgen bought Immunex in 2002.
After Amgen acquired Immunex, the biotech filed new patents regarding Enbrel's composition of matter and manufacturing process that mimic the patents that Immunex had already acquired from Roche.