Gilead gets favorable ruling in Roche arbitration

US biotech major Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) said on Friday in a Security and Exchange Commission filing that an arbitration panel has ruled in its favor, rejecting patent infringement claims from Swiss drug giant Roche (ROG: SIX) relating to its new hepatitis C drug, Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) which has already generated sales of $5.8 billion in its first six months of marketing.

In March 2013, Roche initiated an arbitration against Gilead and Pharmasset, predecessor to Gilead Pharmasset, regarding a 2004 collaboration agreement between Roche and Pharmasset. In the arbitration demand, Roche asserted that it had an exclusive license to sofosbuvir pursuant to the collaboration agreement because sofosbuvir, a prodrug of a uridine monophosphate analogue, is allegedly a prodrug of PSI-6130, a cytidine analogue.

Roche further claimed that, because it had exclusive rights to sofosbuvir, it also had an exclusive license to a patent covering sofosbuvir, and that Gilead infringed that patent by selling and offering for sale products containing sofosbuvir. Gilead and Gilead Pharmasset filed their response to Roche's arbitration demand in April 2013. The arbitration hearing was held in New York in June 2014.