Merck Loses Bid for Supreme Court to Revive $2.5 Billion Verdict
- High Court won’t consider validity of Merck’s Hep C patent
- Gilead had successfully invalidated patent after trial loss
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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The Supreme Court rebuffed a bid by Merck & Co.’s Idenix to revive a record verdict against Gilead Sciences Inc. in a dispute over a patent for a hepatitis C treatment.
The justices declined to hear arguments by Merck and its Italian partner, Universita Degli Studi di Cagliari, that an appeals court improperly invalidated its patent for a group of compounds that Merck’s Idenix unit contends is the basis for all major treatments for hepatitis C, including ones made by Gilead.