Amgen Announces Enbrel Patent Issued

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) today issued the following statement:

Amgen today announced the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 8,063,182 related to Enbrel® (etanercept). This patent is owned by Hoffman-La Roche Inc. and exclusively licensed to Amgen. Immunex Corporation (acquired by Amgen in 2002) originally licensed this patent application from Roche in 1999, and in 2004, Amgen paid Roche a one-time payment and obtained an exclusive, fully paid-up license to the application which issued today as the '182 patent. The patent describes and claims the fusion protein that is etanercept, and by statute, the '182 patent has a term of 17 years from today.