Kite accused of infringing Juno’s cancer immunotherapy
Juno Therapeutics and the Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research have entered a second round of litigation against Kite, a company which specialises in cancer immunotherapy treatments.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed at the US District Court for the Central District of California on Friday, September 1 by Juno and Sloan Kettering, Kite infringed a cancer immunotherapy that uses a chimeric T cell receptor (chimeric TCR).
The treatment was invented and patented by scientists at Sloan Kettering and is designed to redirect T cells to recognise and attack target cells, such as tumour cells.
US patent number 7,446,190 covers the invention, “Nucleic acids encoding chimeric T cell receptors”, and is licensed to Juno.
Kite’s treatment, axicabtagene ciloeucel (KTE-C19), which is a drug designed to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, infringed the ‘190 patent, according to Juno.
Kite requested an inter partes review (IPR) by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the ‘190 patent in August 2015.
The PTAB said that Kite did not demonstrate “by a preponderance of the evidence” that the ‘190 patent was unpatentable.
Now, in the second round of litigation, Juno said that Kite is getting closer to receiving approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the commercialisation of its axicabtagene ciloeucel product.
Juno is seeking injunctive relief against Kite, along with damages and costs.
Sloan Kettering, a cancer treatment and research institution, was founded in 1884 and is based in New York City.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
Already registered?
Login to your account
If you don't have a login or your access has expired, you will need to purchase a subscription to gain access to this article, including all our online content.
For more information on individual annual subscriptions for full paid access and corporate subscription options please contact us.
To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.
For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk