Revlimid ruling is good news for B-MS takeover plans

15 March 2019

US biotech Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) closed up 1% on Thursday after coming out unscathed from a patent challenge to its best-selling drug.

The ruling by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which protects Revlimid (lenalidomide) from generic competition in the USA until 2023, is also good news for the planned $74 billion takeover of Celgene by US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) as it will help to dispel investor doubts.

Privately-owned US drugmaker Alvogen had sought an inter partes review of a patent covering the multiple myeloma drug, but the PTAB found the claims unlikely to succeed so dismissed them.

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