Biotech Claims Dismissed
Columbia University won dismissal of lawsuits by the biotechnology industry over a patent for gene-altering technology that forms the basis of all biotech drugs.
U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf in Boston ruled that Columbia’s pledge in September not to sue or seek additional royalties from Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc., Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen Idec Inc., South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. and other companies eliminated their right to challenge the patent.
Columbia’s other patents on the same technology have earned the New York university more than $600 million.
The companies’ “present rights are clear, and there is no risk that they will be required to pay Columbia damages for their current activities or products,” Wolf said in Friday’s ruling. Most of the suits will be dismissed in their entirety, though some contract issues may remain in individual cases.
Columbia professor Richard Axel, co-winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine for unrelated research, and his co-inventors developed a way to insert genes into a cell to create a protein, the building block for all biotech drugs. The technology was used in developing Biogen’s Avonex, a multiple sclerosis medicine, and Genzyme Corp.’s Cerezyme enzyme replacement.
After the main patents on the technology expired in 2000, Columbia received a new patent in 2002. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office also is taking a second look at the patent to ensure it covers a new invention.
The original DNA patents were the university’s most profitable and pushed Columbia to the top of the list of universities in royalty collections. Faced with challenges from its clients, Columbia said it wouldn’t seek royalties on that patent even if the patent office upheld it.
Two companies -- Wyeth and Johnson & Johnson -- reached tentative deals with Columbia. The others said they wanted to pursue their lawsuits.
“We’re pleased that Columbia has now abandoned any efforts to enforce its patent following the court’s ruling that the patent would likely be found invalid and unenforceable,” said Genzyme lawyer Donald Ware.
Columbia lawyer David Gindler said Wolf’s decision wasn’t a surprise. “We’re just very pleased with the result,” he said.
