Merck’s Patent Win Over Gilead Reversed Over False Testimony
- Judge throws out $200 million jury verdict in hepatitis C case
- Gilead’s Harvoni, Sovaldi drugs dominate market for treatment
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Merck & Co.’s $200 million jury verdict against Gilead Sciences Inc. was voided in a patent dispute over a breakthrough for hepatitis C because of misconduct by a witness at the companies’ trial.
A federal judge concluded Monday that dishonest and duplicitous testimony by a retired Merck scientist before and during a March trial played into the jury’s finding that the company was responsible for early discoveries that led to the development of Gilead’s Sovaldi and Harvoni medicines.