Idenix files lawsuits in Europe, charging Gilead infringed on its patent by marketing hep C drug

Cambridge drug engineer Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. has documented claims in Europe charging that biotechnology titan Gilead Sciences Inc. encroached on an Idenix patent when it promoted a well known new hepatitis C treatment in England, France, and Germany.

The suits heighten a three-month-old fight in court in the middle of Gilead and Idenix over the medication, called Sovaldi. Idenix — in which a Boston multifaceted investments has taken a developing position — says it has elite rights to protected innovation for sofosbuvir, the compound on which Sovaldi is based. The organization stopped comparable grumblings against Gilead in California in December.

Idenix has not indicated the amount it is looking for in harms. Its suits in Europe take after the giving of a patent by the European Union on Wednesday. The licenses that are the US's subject encroachment cases were allowed somewhere around 2005 and 2009.

"These are the first hostile moves Idenix has taken in this scene of case against Gilead," said Teri Dahlman, an Idenix representative. "We feel unequivocally about our licensed innovation and we're guarding it."

Amy Flood, a VP at Gilead's central command in Foster City, Calif., said her organization rejects Idenix's licensed innovation declaration.

"Gilead will safeguard against any case brought by Idenix and we will challenge the legitimacy of Idenix's European patent," she said.

Shares of Idenix were unaltered at $6.94 on the Nasdaq trade Friday. Gilead shares tumbled 3.8 percent to $75.05, lost $2.96 each.

Patients conveying the liver-assaulting hepatitis C infection have been inclining toward Sovaldi, endorsed by the Food and Drug Administration in December, in light of the fact that it is a pill that is less demanding to endure, can be taken for a shorter compass than different medications, and is viewed as more powerful than past medications. The wholesale cost of Gilead's medication is $28,000 for a four-week treatment.

Experts have anticipated Sovaldi could produce offers of at any rate $6 billion this year, which would make it one of the top-offering medications ever. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Boston biotechnology organization that business sectors rival hepatitis C drug Incivek, has lost business to Sovaldi and other new-era medicines for the ailment.

Idenix, established in 1998, co-built up a hepatitis B treatment at present advertised only by Novartis AG, the Swiss pharmaceutical organization that has its overall innovative work central station in Cambridge. Idenix has two hepatitis C medication competitors in clinical trials, and a few others in preclinical advancement, drawing on protected innovation it has under licenses recompensed in the United States and Europe.

In an administrative documenting a month ago, Boston's biggest support investments, Seth Klarman's Baupost Group, said it had amassed a 35.4 percent stake in Idenix