Juno Therapeutics, Novartis, St. Jude Medical, University of Pennsylvania cancer news
A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted a motion allowing Novartis to intervene as a coplaintiff in a March 2013 suit filed by the university against St. Jude seeking declaratory relief that the university's cancer immunotherapy does not infringe St. Jude's U.S. Patent No. 8,399,645. The patent covers the use of chimeric cell membrane receptors and their therapeutic uses. The suit also seeks declaration that the '645 patent is invalid.
Last November, the suit was consolidated with a 2012 suit filed by St. Jude alleging the university breached two material transfer agreements related to the provision of biologic materials by St. Jude to the university. Specifically, the materials provided by St. Jude were an "anti-CD19-BB-zeta chimeric T-cell receptor construct, including any progeny, portions, unmodified derivatives any accompanying know-how or data." St. Jude alleged the university breached the agreements by "hawking" the receptor as its own in scientific publications and by commercializing the receptor without St. Jude's consent. ...