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Medytox(152,000 +4.83%)The’Botox Dispute’, which was won by half the victory in the United States, has led to Medytox and Medytox’s partner Allergan (now Abbe), Daewoong Pharmaceutical(136,000 -1.09%)It was settled by a’three-party agreement’ such as Evolus, a partner of the company.
Medytox signed a three-party agreement to settle all intellectual property lawsuits, including the US International Trade Commission (ITC) lawsuit against the sale of Nabota (U.S. product name bulletin) by Allergan, Ebolus and Daewoong Pharm. Revealed.
According to the agreement, Nabota, Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s botulinum toxin formulation, can be sold without any restrictions. Instead, whenever Nabota was sold in the United States, Ebolus decided to pay a certain amount between Medytox and Aller. It is also planning to issue common shares to Medytox.
In addition, Medytox plans to withdraw its California lawsuit against Ebolus. The industry estimates that this agreement will allow Medytox and Allergan to receive tens of billions of milestones and royalties equivalent to single-digit percent of Nabota sales.
However, Daewoong Pharmaceutical is not a party to this agreement. Medytox said, “This agreement has no effect on the legal rights and status of Medytox and Daewoong Pharmaceutical in Korea and other countries, as well as the investigation or litigation process.”
Daewoong Pharmaceutical said it was excluded from the obligation to pay royalties as it was omitted from the agreement. The explanation is that Evolus, not Daewoong Pharmaceuticals, will pay a portion of Nabota’s sales from Medytox and Aller because it is a trilateral agreement.
This agreement relates to the final decision on Medytox’s filing a complaint with the US ITC for infringement of trade secrets related to botulinum strains.
Botulinum toxin, well known under the brand name of Allergan’s’Botox’ in the United States, is a toxic protein extracted from botulinum bacteria that causes food poisoning, causing weak muscle paralysis, smoothing wrinkles and eliminating eye tremors. Medytox has exported the liquid botulinum toxin product technology to Allergan, and Daewoong Pharmaceutical is selling Nabota to the US through Ebolus.
Medytox reported that Daewoong Pharmaceutical had stolen its strain and manufacturing process technical documents, and filed a formal complaint with ITC in January 2019. At the time, Medytox filed a lawsuit with Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s US partner Evolus as a joint plaintiff with US partner Allergan.
Medytox has partnered with Allergan without a licensed product in the U.S., and Daewoong Pharm became a co-defendant in an ITC lawsuit after selling Nabota in the U.S. through Ebolus.
Since then, the US ITC ruled Ebolus not to import Nabota from Daewoong Pharmaceutical for 21 months in December of last year. However, considering that the botulinum strain was not a trade secret, Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s import ban on botulinum toxin formulations, which had been 10 years in the preliminary decision, was shortened to 21 months.
Although some of the charges of stealing the manufacturing process were admitted, the industry pointed out that the botulinum strain claimed by Medytox was not a trade secret, and that it was only a’half victory’.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical, in opposition to the ITC’s final decision, filed an appeals trial with the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals (CAFC), but this process is expected to end with this trilateral agreement. ITC litigation can be reversed even after the final decision if the parties agree.
Seongsu Bae, reporter Hankyung.com [email protected]