Zurich — Landmark Roche patents that helped launch the modern biotechnology era end next year, extinguishing a source of billions of dollars in income for the Swiss drug maker and piling pressure on its new medicines to succeed. Roche’s so-called Cabilly patents protect a pivotal step in manufacturing therapeutic antibodies, but end on December 18 2018. For decades, these patents allowed Roche to extract cash from dozens of drug makers. In 2018 alone, experts estimate the patents will reap $1bn for Roche and California’s City of Hope medical centre, where the technology was developed nearly 40 years ago. The patent expirations come just as Roche’s $20bn-a-year drug trio Rituxan, Avastin and Herceptin are also losing protection, exposing them to cheaper biosimilar copies. Roche also has rising financial obligations to other companies whose patented know-how contributed to its newer medicines. "Beyond the sales losses through biosimilars, hundreds of millions in royalties will evapora...
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