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.

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