Kite must pay $1.2bn for infringing CAR-T patent

A California federal judge has issued a final award of $1.2 billion in damages to  Bristol-Myers Squibb subsidiary  Juno Therapeutics in its patent infringement dispute with  Gilead’s Kite Pharma.

LSIPR reported last week that  Gilead had failed to overturn a December 2019 jury verdict that awarded Juno $752 million, after Kite was found to have infringed a patent licensed exclusively by the BMS company (US number 7,446,190).

This week spelt more bad news for Kite, which is now on the hook for a grand total of $1.2 billion. In a final judgment, judge Philip Gutierrez ordered Kite to pay enhanced damages of $389 million on top of the earlier award.

Kite infringed Juno’s patent through the sale of Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), a CAR-T therapy used to treat large B-cell lymphoma.

In the order, Gutierrez also declared that Kite’s infringement was willful and the ‘190 patent was valid.

The court’s order unsealed last week dismissed Kite’s arguments that the ‘190 patent was invalid and that procedural issues in the case warranted a new trial.

The patent is owned by  Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, which licenses it exclusively to Juno.

“Through its scientific collaborators, Kite copied and is now commercialising a cancer immunotherapy that utilises a chimeric T cell receptor invented, and patented, by prominent scientists at Sloan Kettering,” the original complaint said.

The jury sided with Juno, but Kite claimed that the trial had been rushed and not given the Gilead company enough time to present its evidence.

The court found Kite’s argument unpersuasive, and rejected its request for a new trial, clearing the way for yesterday’s final judgment in favour of Juno.

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