Roche Sues Novartis Over Esbriet Copy, Asking for Billions (1)

Roche Holding AG is seeking “hundreds of millions—if not billions—of dollars in lost profits” from Novartis AG, whose launch last year of Esbriet copies that allegedly infringe a patent prompted other rivals to sell their own generic versions of the lung disease drug.

Genentech Inc. and Hoffman-La Roche Inc., subsidiaries of Switzerland-based Roche, filed the complaint against Novartis’ Sandoz Inc. and Lek Pharmaceuticals units on Monday in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Esbriet had US sales of $476.8 million in 2022, 0.7% of Roche’s revenue, down from $800.8 million in 2021, according to data ...