Novartis Says Court Battle Will Delay Its Enbrel Copy Until 2018 at Least

Novartis said that a legal battle will delay the launch of Erelzi, a biosimilar of Amgen's Enbrel, until at least next year, as reported The New York Times Wednesday.

• Amgen has argued that Enbrel has patent protection until 2029.

• "That's the frustration sometimes of the legal situation, but the way I look at that, we're carving the landscape out as we go," commented Richard Francis, head of Novartis's Sandoz generics business.

• Amgen and Novartis are also entangled in a separate legal case regarding whether companies must wait 180 days after FDA approval to launch biosimilars.