Biotech firm sues Alexion
Steve Higgins, Register Business Editor
03/20/2007
CHESHIRE — A California biotechnology firm has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. over Soliris, which on Friday became the first drug developed by a Connecticut biotech company to gain approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Alexion disputes the allegations in the lawsuit.
PDL BioPharma Inc., of Fremont, Calif., filed the suit late Friday, claiming Alexion violated some of its patents involving antibodies. PDL is seeking monetary damages but did not ask for an injunction, since PDL officials said they don’t want to hamper development of the drug. "We have contacted Alexion to discuss the situation with them," said PDL spokeswoman Ami Knoefler. "We filed the lawsuit to protect our intellectual property in relation to our antibody humanization patents."
Alexion founder and CEO Dr. Leonard Bell said Alexion did not violate any patents. "I feel the claims have no merit, and we’ll certainly defend ourselves vigorously," he said. Bell said he believes the claim would only garner PDL 2 percent or 3 percent of the royalties on Soliris, and declined to comment further.
Rachel McMinn, senior biotechnology research analyst for Piper Jaffray in San Francisco, agreed the claim would probably amount to 2 to 3 percent of royalties. "It’s really not that material. It would barely be noticeable in the income statement," she said. McMinn said PDL has broad claims to intellectual property rights concerning humanized antibodies, or antibodies generated from animals, often mice, that are then processed to be more "human-like." "There are only a couple of companies that have intellectual properties around humanized antibodies. It’s a major source of revenue for them and they’re highly incentivized," she said. "I would assume this will take years to resolve."
PDL was founded in 1986 as Protein Design Labs Inc., and changed its name to PDL BioPharma last year.
Soliris is the brand name for eculizimab, which is designed to treat patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare, life-threatening condition. The drug also has the potential to treat a variety of common diseases of the immune system such as asthma, age-related macular degeneration, lupus and arthritis, as well as a number of other rare diseases.
Alexion’s stock closed Monday at $39 a share, down $1.15, after having risen by $2.78 Friday. PDL’s stock closed at $19.07 a share Monday, up 35 cents.
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