Juno settles CAR T patent suit with Novartis, UPenn

Juno Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:JUNO) settled litigation with Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN) and the University of Pennsylvania related to U.S. Patent No. 8,399,645. Juno's partner St. Jude Children's Research Hospital owns the patent, which covers therapeutic uses of chimeric cell membrane receptors.

St. Jude had filed suit against UPenn in 2012 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging breach of materials transfer agreements regarding chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technology targeting CD19. UPenn counterclaimed that its cell constructs were different from St. Jude's. Juno, which licensed CAR T technology from St. Jude, and Novartis, which licensed similar technology from UPenn, later intervened on behalf of their partners (see BioCentury Innovations, June 26, 2014). ...