Sandoz moves to dismiss Amgen patent suit

The Sandoz unit of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California seeking an order to dismiss patent infringement and related claims from Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) related to Sandoz's application to market Zarxio ( EP2006), a biosimilar of Amgen's neutropenia drug Neupogen filgrastim recombinant methionyl human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF).

In July, Sandoz announced FDA had accepted the company's BLA for Zarxio, making it the first disclosed biosimilar candidate to reach that regulatory milestone in the U.S. ...