|
|
▲Meditox and Daewoong Pharmaceutical. |
[에너지경제신문 이나경 기자] On the 14th, the full text of the final judgment of the US International Trade Commission (ITC) on the lawsuit for infringement of trade secrets of botulinum strains by Medytox and Daewoong Pharmaceutical was released on the 14th.
According to Daewoong Pharmaceutical and Medytox, the ITC Committee considered Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s use of Medytox’s manufacturing process technology as the basis for violations and disposal of the Customs Act, but the strain of Medytox itself did not qualify as a trade secret.
Earlier, on December 16 last year (local time), the ITC Committee said, “Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s botulinum toxin formulation’Nabota’ (U.S. product name bulletin) violates Article 337 of the Customs Act and orders a ban on imports into the United States for 21 months. “However, the strain of Medytox is not recognized as a trade secret.”
Both companies admit that the strain was not recognized as a trade secret, and that a ruling was issued due to infringement of manufacturing process technology.
In particular, Daewoong Pharmaceutical emphasizes that the ITC strain debate has ended with this full disclosure.
Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s position is that the ITC judged that the Medytox strain was not a trade secret, dismissing all claims of Medytox related to the strain. It plans to appeal the alleged violation of manufacturing process technology.
An official of Daewoong Pharmaceutical said, “There is sufficient evidence that we independently developed the process technology for botulinum strains.”
“Now, the Federal Court of Appeals proves that the ITC’s decision regarding the infringement of process technology is a clear misjudgment, and all errors will be corrected.”
Medytox expressed regret that the strain was not recognized as a trade secret, but focused on the discovery of criminal activity.
An official of Medytox stressed that “genetic analysis revealed that Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s strain was derived from Medytox, but the strain was not recognized as a trade secret, so it was not subject to ITC regulation.”
He added, “It was clearly revealed that the manufacturing process technology was stolen as a trade secret, and an import ban was imposed.”
Daewoong Pharmaceutical is also refuting this.
An official of Daewoong Pharmaceutical said, “Based on the results of genetic analysis in Meditox, we claim that we have stolen the strain, but many experts point out that there are limitations and errors in the analysis method.” There is no evidence that I did it.”
On the other hand, Medytox plans to ask Daewoong Pharmaceutical to ban the use of the manufacturing process and return the rights to the strain based on the ITC ruling. It said that it would also claim damage and disposal of products that were already produced or in circulation.
Reporter Lee Na-kyung [email protected]