The U.S. District Court in Boston ruled that Amgen is entitled to a permanent injunction prohibiting Roche from selling Mircera, its erythropoietin agent (ESA) product that would have competed directly with Amgen´s Epogen.

Amgen´s Aranesp and Epogen are two of their best-sellers – Aranesp had revenue for just under $ 1.6 billion dollars in the 1H2008, while Epogen generated almost $ 1.2 billion dollars in the same period.

Amgen had sought the permanent injunction after its win in October 2007 of a patent infringement case filed against Roche. Roche appealed, and on learning of the court´s ruling this week, has said it will assess how this opinion impacts its appeal.

A Morgan Stanley analyst, William Ho, said the permanent injunction in favor of Amgen´s rights to the patents in the U.S. was expected - however, Roche was free to sell its drug in Europe.

"Failure to enter a permanent injunction ... would risk undermining the incentives for innovation that have produced, and hopefully will continue to produce, medical advances that extend and enhance the value of life," the court wrote in its ruling.