Roche Could Take a $500M Hit Over Patent Losses

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ZURICH (Reuters) - 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 drugmaker 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 Dec. 18, 2018.

For decades, these patents allowed Roche to extract cash from dozens of drugmakers.

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