{"id":23287,"date":"2019-05-20T22:36:56","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T12:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=23287"},"modified":"2019-05-20T22:36:58","modified_gmt":"2019-05-20T12:36:58","slug":"big-pharma-bombshell-judge-finds-merck-lied-in-patent-trial-overturns-200-million-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=23287","title":{"rendered":"Big Pharma bombshell: Judge finds Merck lied in patent trial, overturns $200-million verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Merck\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The public already holds drug manufacturers in low esteem \u2013 and now they’ve got more fuel for their opinion. Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman of San Jose last week found that Merck & Co. lied to a business partner and to the court itself. Freeman threw out a patent infringement judgment Merck had won against Gilead Sciences, and overturned a $200-million jury award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a big deal, involving one of the most profitable drugs on the market today \u2014 Foster City, Calif.-based Gilead’s blockbuster Sovaldi treatment for the hepatitis C virus \u2014 and the world’s fourth-largest drug company Merck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merck’s misconduct includes misusing Pharmasset’s confidential information and lying under oath at deposition and trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s also an enormous black eye for Merck, whose activities the judge said consisted of “systematic and outrageous deception in conjunction with unethical business practices and litigation misconduct.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the case does more than raise questions about the integrity of a huge corporation. It’s a window into the extent to which the nation’s overworked patent inspectors can be misled by applicants backed by big corporate war chests in pursuit of billions of dollars in potential profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Peter Little wrote: WHY do Australian Health Ministers blindly believe Merck is creating vaccines that are safe and effective, when yet again MERCK are found in court to be corrupt! \u201cIt’s also an enormous black eye for Merck, whose activities the judge said consisted of “systematic and outrageous deception in conjunction with unethical business practices and litigation misconduct.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/hiltzik\/la-fi-hiltzik-merck-gilead-20160608-snap-story.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The public already holds drug manufacturers in low esteem \u2013 and now they’ve got more fuel for their opinion. Federal Judge Beth Labson Freeman of San Jose last week found that Merck & Co. lied to a business partner and to the court itself. Freeman threw out a patent infringement judgment Merck had won against … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Big Pharma bombshell: Judge finds Merck lied in patent trial, overturns $200-million verdict”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-health-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23289,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23287\/revisions\/23289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}