Roche Wants Novartis Units’ Launch of Esbriet Copies Blocked

Two Roche Holding AG units asked a federal judge in Delaware to block two Novartis AG units from selling a generic version of Esbriet while he considers their emergency request for a temporary restraining order and until Roche’s appeal of his ruling that the copycats don’t infringe six patents is resolved.

Judge Richard G. Andrews, who held a bench trial in November, ruled on March 22 that a generic version of Esbriet proposed by Novartis’ Sandoz Inc. and Lek Pharmaceuticals units doesn’t infringe six patents for the drug. Esbriet is a treatment for an irreversible lung disease that ...