Danish university sues Creative Biolabs over ‘antibody pirating’
The University of Southern Denmark (SDU) has accused biotech Creative Biolabs of infringing its patent-protected monoclonal antibody, HG-HYB 7-5.
In a suit filed Monday, December 7, at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the university claimed that Creative Biolabs is unlawfully making and marketing SDU’s antibody for sale on its website using the SDU designation “HG-HYB 7-5”.
The antibody at issue targets microfibrillar-associated protein 4 (MFAP4), a systemic biomarker that is significantly elevated in patients suffering from liver fibrosis or pulmonary arterial hypertension.
According to the claim, Creative Biolabs is also directly referencing the university’s published data, including figures that were “lifted directly” from an SDU published paper.
“Creative Biolabs further refers to data on its website for its infringing HG-HYB 7-5 antibody that can be found only in SDU’s published patent application or its subsequently issued US patent number 9,988,442, showing that it was well-aware that SDU had patent rights to the HG-HYB 7-5 antibody,” added the claim.
The ‘442 patent covers antibodies capable of binding to MFAP4 for use in treating or preventing cardiovascular proliferative diseases and allergic asthma.
The amino acid sequence (and nucleotide sequence) of SDU’s patented HG-HYB 7-5 antibody can only be found in the patent or its earlier published patent application, alleged the university, adding that Creative Biolabs directly copied the amino acid and/or nucleotide sequence from the patent in order to make its infringing antibody product.
“Creative Biolabs has a history of wilfully disregarding IP rights,” alleged the suit, claiming that at least three other lawsuits have been filed in the last three years with “strikingly similar claims of wilful patent infringement”.
“Within the last three years Creative Biolabs has been sued for patent infringement on at least three occasions that have strikingly similar fact patterns to the present dispute, confirming a pattern and practice by Creative Biolabs to pirate antibodies for its own gain in complete disregard of existing patent rights,” added the suit.
In March this year, Biogen and the University of Zurich accused Creative Biolabs of unlawfully selling copies of Biogen’s aducanumab antibody, which is being investigated for the treatment of early Alzheimer’s disease.
At the time, Biogen alleged that Creative Biolabs was offering to sell Biogen’s aducanumab via its website and was citing Biogen’s clinical trials as evidence of its applicability to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
In the latest suit brought against Creative Biolabs, SDU is seeking a finding of infringement, injunctive relief and damages.
