Lonza's Patent Claims Invalidated
Samsung BioLogics has won its patent invalidation trial against Lonza Group, a Swiss multinational, chemicals and biotechnology company headquartered in Basel. The Korean company announced on Oct. 1 that the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of it on Aug. 29.
The suit, which was filed by Samsung BioLogics back in July 2017, was related to a vector carrying a DNA developed for biopharmaceutical production into a host cell. Also related were a hCMV intron and a mCMV promoter for intra-cell DNA fixation and subsequent DNA expression. Lonza can lodge an appeal with the Patent Court of Korea this month.
Samsung BioLogics filed the suit in expanding its business to contract drug development, claiming that Lonza’s patents related to cell line development are acting as an unfair entry barrier and the patents lack novelty and inventive step.
According to Samsung BioLogics, Lonza's patents have been withdrawn in Europe, waived in the United States and rejected in Japan for the reasons that its technologies are identical to and can be easily developed from already known technologies. At present, the patents are being maintained only in those countries classified as emerging in the biotech industry such as South Korea, India and China.