EntreMed files counterclaim against Abbott

ENMD filed a counterclaim against ABT in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. In May, ABT filed suit in the same court alleging that an ABT scientist discovered the anti-angiogenic activity of the Kringle 5 domain of the plasminogen protein and that ABT should have inventorship of U.S. Patent No. 5,854,221, which covers the use of the Kringle 5 peptide to inhibit endothelial cell proliferation (angiogenesis). The patent was assigned to Judah Folkman and colleagues at Children's Medical Center (Boston, Mass.), and is exclusively licensed to ENMD. ABT's suit alleges that the defendants, including Folkman and ENMD, misappropriated and fraudulently patented the Kringle 5 invention and seeks to reassign ownership of the patent to ABT as well as damages. ENMD said its counterclaim denies ABT any claim to inventorship of Kringle 5. ...