The C Stands for ‘C You in Court’

There are plenty of reasons biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies have turned their guns on hepatitis C: An estimated 4 million Americans suffer from the chronic liver disease caused by the virus; worldwide, the number is 170 million.

And no company is more in the thick of the battle than Chiron Corp. of Emeryville, Calif., a biotech giant that boasts revenue of more than $1 billion a year. Chiron scientists were the first to clone the virus 10 years ago--and they hold broad patents covering their discoveries. In addition to developing a vaccine, the company is working with Pharmacia & Upjohn to design drugs to knock out the infection.

Within the last two weeks, Chiron has filed suits against four competitors--claiming they infringed its patents related to hepatitis C. The companies sued to date are Agouron Pharmaceuticals of La Jolla; Gilead Sciences of Foster City, Calif.; Vertex Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass.; and Eli Lilly & Co. of Indianapolis. All the companies are developing drugs against hepatitis C--and all are withholding comment on the suits, except to say they expect no material effect on their bottom lines.

Such patent suits are a growing phenomenon in the world of biotechnology, where many aspects of the law remain unsettled--and litigation can take years, even decades to resolve.

Chiron patent counsel Robert P. Blackburn says that last year the company offered to license its protease discoveries nonexclusively and got four takers.

As for the firms being sued, Blackburn said the licensing offer “remains on the table, but it is their choice. We’re not going to permit them to violate the patents without suing them.”