The Opposition Division (OD) of the European Patent Office has revoked another FibroGen (Nasdaq: FGEN)hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-related patent in Europe, says US drug developer Akebia Therapeutics (Nasdaq: AKBA), which is focused on delivering innovative therapies to patients with kidney disease through the biology of HIF.
In addition, Akebia’s challenge to a second HIF-related patent resulted in FibroGen significantly narrowing the claims to cover only an indication for which Akebia is not intending to develop vadadustat. These positive outcomes follow Akebia’s success in challenging two other FibroGen European patents (EP 1 463 823 and EP 1 633 333), which were revoked in their entirety by the OD in March and December of 2016, respectively.
Market reaction to the news was contrary, as FibroGen gained 3.4% to $28.70, while Akebia’s shares dropped 4.5% to $13.20 by close of trading on Monday.
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