Bristol Myers Sues AstraZeneca Over PD-L1 Cancer Drug Patents

Bristol Myers Squibb Co BMY claims that AstraZeneca Plc's AZN PD-L1 inhibitor, Imfinzi, infringed on at least eight patents in a newly filed complaint.
The lawsuit in Delaware federal court said that the use of Imfinzi to treat lung and bladder cancer infringes several patents on Bristol's immunotherapy Opdivo.
From the complaint: AstraZeneca exploits Plaintiffs' inventions and infringes Plaintiffs' intellectual property rights by marketing a later-developed anti-PD-L1 antibody product, Imfinzi (durvalumab), used in methods for treating cancer and for enhancing the immune response.
AstraZeneca knew that Plaintiffs licensed their PD-L1 estate to other companies that also market anti-PD-L1 antibodies to treat urothelial carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer.
On information and belief, AstraZeneca monitored Plaintiffs' patent portfolio because in or around May 2019, AstraZeneca approached Plaintiffs about licensing one or more patents in Plaintiffs' PD-L1 patent portfolio. On information and belief, at least in connection with that outreach by AstraZeneca to Plaintiffs to license Plaintiffs' PD-L1 patent portfolio, AstraZeneca investigated Plaintiffs' portfolio of PD-L1-related patents and patent applications, which included the ’505 patent at that point.
The ’505 patent is titled "Human Monoclonal Antibodies to Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1) with claims "generally directed to monoclonal antibodies that cross-compete with a specific reference antibody for binding to human PD-L1."
Bristol Myers Squibb is looking for damages on top of patent infringement rulings.
Price Action: AZN stock is up 0.19% at $63.35, and BMY shares are down 0.27% at $70.83 during the market session on the last check Monday.

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