Bavarian Nordic fights Acambis over intellectual property rights
Bavarian Nordic has filed a patent infringement action against Acambis' MVA smallpox vaccine products at the US International Trade Commission in Washington DC. If successful, Bavarian Nordic will be able either to stop Acambis from importing any infringing MVA smallpox vaccine into the US, or to seek a royalty for each infringing dose of MVA smallpox vaccine imported to the US.
Bavarian Nordic has filed a patent infringement action against Acambis' MVA smallpox vaccine products at the US International Trade Commission in Washington DC. If successful, Bavarian Nordic will be able either to stop Acambis from importing any infringing MVA smallpox vaccine into the US, or to seek a royalty for each infringing dose of MVA smallpox vaccine imported to the US.
The Danish biopharmaceutical company, which also has operations in Germany and the US, has also filed a misappropriation of trade secrets case against Acambis in the US federal district court in Delaware. According to the complaint, without permission from Bavarian Nordic, Acambis received a Bavarian Nordic proprietary MVA-strain and dosing information, and used them to develop a competing MVA smallpox vaccine product. Bavarian Nordic hopes to win monetary damages and injunctive relief.
The two companies are currently competing in a bidding process to supply millions of doses of MVA smallpox vaccine to the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) under the BioShield programme.
Commenting on the actions filed, Peter Wulff, president and ceo of Bavarian Nordic, said: 'We have substantially invested our resources to develop our MVA-BN vaccine products. Bavarian Nordic's efforts have led to the creation of valuable intellectual property, including proprietary material and two patents issued by the USPTO covering the unique properties of MVA-BN. These legal actions are being taken to protect our assets.'
Acambis said it would vigorously defend its legal position.