Chugai says it is being sued for patent infringement by Baxalta

Japanese drug major Chugai Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4519) says that a lawsuit was filed against the company at the US District Court for the District of Delaware.

In this, Baxalta, now a subsidiary of Ireland-headquartered Shire (LSE: SHP), alleges that the new drug candidate under development for the treatment of hemophilia A, emicizumab (development code: ACE910), infringes one of its US patent (patent number 7,033,590). Thus, Baxalta filed a lawsuit against Chugai and Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche (ROG: SIX), which is also the majority shareholder of Chugai, requesting relief including an injunction enjoining manufacturing, using, offering to sell, or selling emicizumab within the USA, or importing emicizumab into the USA.

The complaint has not been served. However, Chugai is confident that emicizumab does not infringe the plaintiff’s patent and will vigorously challenge the infringement allegations and the validity of the patent, and assert other defenses as appropriate.