Replies to post #100567 on Biotech Values

[10nisman]

MDCO...

=DJ Medicines Co Shares Soar On Favorable Patent Ruling >MDCO

By Jennifer Cummings
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Shares of Medicines Co. (MDCO) soared Tuesday afternoon after a U.S. District Court ruling raised hopes a patent on the drug company's lead product will get a crucial extension.

The ruling is the latest in an ongoing saga surrounding the company's patent on its blood-thinning drug Angiomax. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has repeatedly said it won't extend Medicines Co.'s Angiomax patent, saying the application for that patent had been filed a day late.

In the latest development, a U.S. District Court judge said in an order dated Tuesday that the patent office should consider Medicines Co.'s patent-term extension application timely filed.

Medicines Co. and the patent office declined to immediately comment.

Shares of Medicines Co. closed 34% higher at $12.47 after earlier jumping as high as $15.43.

The nearly decade-long battle over the patent comes down to a debate over what date Angiomax was technically approved.

Medicines Co. received approval for the drug Friday, Dec. 15, 2000, after the close of business. The company's lawyers believed the 60-day window to file the extension application began the following business day, Monday, Dec. 18, 2000, and filed that application within 60 days from that date, on Feb. 14, 2001. But the patent office rejected the application, saying the window for filing the extension already expired by Feb. 14, since 60 days had passed from when the approval had been granted on Dec. 15.

The lack of a patent extension could be disastrous for Medicines Co.'s finances. U.S. sales of Angiomax generated $382 million, or 95%, of the company's revenue for 2009. U.S. sales in that range could likely continue for the next few years if generics are prevented from coming on the market, Chief Executive Clive Meanwell said in an interview in March.

Without the patent protection, the company may have to reduce research investments and possibly cut jobs, Meanwell said in March.

[genisi]

Royalties on sales of ANGIOMAX (bivalirudin) by The Medicines Company (TMC) represent our [BIIB] most significant source of other revenue.