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Jury sides with Merck, Ionis in Gilead HCV suit

March 23, 2016 1:24 AM UTC

A federal jury upheld the validity of two patents held by Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) and Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:IONS) in a dispute with Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) concerning IP for HCV treatments.

The jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California upheld U.S. Patents Nos. 7,105,499 and 8,481,712, covering methods and compounds used to treat HCV. Gilead filed suit in 2013 seeking a declaratory judgment that its HCV treatment Sovaldi sofosbuvir did not infringe the '499 and '712 patents. The nucleotide analog HCV NS5B polymerase inhibitor is included in Gilead's Harvoni ledipasvir/sofosbuvir. ...