Medigen shares COVID vaccine tech with WHO in world-first deal
Taiwanese biotech firm Medigen on Tuesday, August 29, became the first commercial pharma entity to share COVID vaccine technology with the World Health Organization.
Medigen’s vaccine unit was among three licensors to share tech via the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool in new deals, the others being research institutes in Spain and Chile.
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Every second counts: Sanofi draws first blood in Amgen UPC spat
The Munich central division of the Unified Patent Court will hear Sanofi’s revocation action against Amgen, the new court confirmed in one of its first orders, seen by Managing IP.
The decision has not been published, but Managing IP has obtained a copy.
Click here to read the full story.
Other articles published by Managing IP this week include:
EVs and NPEs: automotive firms reveal keys to their IP strategy
How China’s IP firms find opportunities in a slow market
Gilead counsel: how to balance high-stakes pharma cases with pro bono
Weekly take: Law firms can save jobs during downturns – here's how
Series finale? UKIPO mulls TM shake-up
Five minutes with ... Gwilym Roberts, chair at Kilburn & Strode
Elsewhere in IP
TB drug breakthrough
Prices for the generic tuberculosis drug bedaquiline have fallen by up to 55%, the Stop TB Partnership´s Global Drug Facility announced on Wednesday, August 30.
The GDF licensed rights for the drug from J&J in July following a lengthy campaign.
J&J will now charge $130 per six-month treatment course, while Indian generic maker Lupin will charge $194.
A six-month course previously cost $289.
Counterfeit crackdown
A court in Leeds, UK, gave a 33-year-old man a suspended jail sentence for selling counterfeit football shirts in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup on Wednesday, August 30.
Matthew Hyett pleaded guilty to the acquisition of criminal property and distributing goods bearing a false trademark.
Leeds Crown Court sentenced him to six months of imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and ordered him to complete 150 hours of community service.
Hyett was arrested by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit of the City of London Police during a raid in October 2022.
Police seized counterfeit merchandise worth an estimated loss to the industry of £70,000 ($89,000) during searches at Hyett’s market stall in Morley, West Yorkshire, and his home.
Drug price negotiations
Access to medicine campaigners welcomed US President Joe Biden’s selection of the first 10 drugs for a new price negotiation system on Tuesday, August 29.
Critics of the pharmaceutical industry have linked high drug prices in the US to abuse of the patent system by rights owners.
“This program will lower drug prices for millions of seniors while taking important steps forward in curbing drug patent abuse,” the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge said on X.
The new rules are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by Biden last year.
Vaccine wars
Pfizer and BioNTech filed petitions on Monday, August 28, to invalidate two of rival vaccine maker Moderna’s mRNA patents, which are the basis of an infringement lawsuit.
Moderna asserted the two patents (10,933,127 and 10,702,600) against BioNTech at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Pfizer and BioNTech, which partnered to produce one of the world’s first mRNA vaccines during the COVID pandemic, filed the petitions for inter partes review at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
Pandemic prevention
WHO negotiators will meet for another three days of talks on a pandemic prevention treaty, including potential reforms to global intellectual property rules, in Geneva on Monday, September 4.
Member states will discuss Articles 9 and 12 of the draft text, which cover R&D and access to technology, on Monday.
AI threat
Publishers have urged the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, to protect the creative industries’ intellectual property rights from the threat of artificial intelligence.
The Publishers Association said in a letter to Sunak that he must ensure IP “be respected when any content is ingested by AI systems and a licence obtained in advance”.
The UKIPO is expected to produce a new code of conduct for the mining of text and data to train AI systems in the coming months.
That's it for today, see you again next week.
