PDL BioPharma sues Roche's Genentech over royalties

US drug developer PDL BioPharma (Nasdaq: PDL) said yesterday that it has filed suit in a Nevada state court to compel commercial partner Swiss drug major Roche (SIX: ROG.VX) and its US subsidiary Genentech to continue paying royalties on certain Roche products that infringe upon PDL's biotechnology patents.

On August 13, 2010, announced that it had received a facsimile letter from Genentech regarding Avastin (bevacizumab), Herceptin (trastuzumab), Lucentis (ranibizumab) and Xolair (omalizumab) - collectively 'the Genentech Products' - sales in Europe. In its letter, Genentech asserted that the Genentech Products do not infringe the supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) granted to PDL by various countries in Europe for each of the drugs.

On August 31, the company sent its reply to Genentech, stating that Genentech's assertions are without merit. In its response, PDL disagreed fundamentally with Genentech's assertions of non-infringement with respect to the Genentech Products and cautioned that, in the 2003 settlement agreement between PDL and Genentech, the latter had waived its right to challenge the validity of PDL's patent rights, including its SPCs. PDL has requested a meeting with Genentech to discuss resolving their differences regarding infringement of the company's SPCs by the Genentech Products.