Gilead Sciences' patent loss to Merck started with a broken friendship

Washington

IF Gilead Sciences Inc has to pay Merck & Co US$2.54 billion in patent royalties, it may come down to the details of what happened between two scientists who once were close friends.

Merck claims its Idenix unit, which it bought in 2014 for about US$3.85 billion, developed a new class of compounds to treat the potentially deadly virus hepatitis C, which attacks the liver and afflicts as many as 150 million people globally.