Non-profit KEI sues NIH to block Gilead's anti-CD30 CAR T patent

Non-profit Knowledge Ecology International filed a lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health seeking to invalidate a license granting the Kite Pharma Inc. subsidiary of Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD) rights to patents covering an anti-CD30 CAR T therapy.

According to the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland Southern Division, the group is seeking declaratory, injunctive and other relief to rectify the "waste of taxpayer funds that will result in the denial of affordable cancer treatments for patients" because NIH "improperly granted an exclusive license" for federally owned and federally funded technology to a "multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical behemoth." ...