It may not be what Takeda bargained for with its massive Shire buyout, but early into its ownership of the rare disease specialist, a jury ordered the Japanese drugmaker to pay hemophilia rival Bayer $155 million for patent infringement.
The case dates back to a December 2016 lawsuit Bayer filed against Baxalta when the latter company was a unit of Shire. Now that Takeda has scooped up Shire, it’ll be on the hook for the $155 million verdict, which jurors ordered for Baxalta’s infringement of Bayer’s “’520 patent.” The German company secured that patent in June 2016.
Bayer argued Baxalta’s Adynovate infringed on its patent on recombinant Factor VIII technology for hemophilia, and the jury agreed on all four claims. After calculating a “reasonable royalty rate,” they settled on $155 million in damages.
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A Takeda spokesperson told Reuters the company was disappointed with the verdict.
“As a company, we are committed to developing and commercializing products with the best interest of patients in mind and without violating the intellectual property rights of third parties,” the drugmaker said in a statement, as quoted by the news service.
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The patent infringement came out of a licensing deal between Baxalta and Nektar Therapeutics, Bayer argued. Nektar had partnered with both Bayer and Baxalta on hemophilia in the 2000s, and “knew or should have known” about Bayer’s patent despite licensing technology to Baxalta.
Baxalta said Bayer’s patent was invalid, but the jury didn’t buy the argument. The company was formerly part of Baxter before its spinoff; Shire scooped up the separated company in 2016, and Takeda bought Shire for $62 billion in a deal that closed last month.
