Jurors in a U.S. federal court have ordered a Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. unit to pay Bayer AG $155.19 million for a case related to a hemophilia drug.
The Takeda unit, Baxalta, was acquired by Shire Plc in 2016, and Shire was subsequently bought up by Takeda for $59 billion last year — leaving the legal ramifications of the case in Takeda’s lap.
Bayer argued that Baxalta’s treatment, Adynovate, infringed on its June 2016 patent for its own hemophilia technology. Baxalta had an exclusive license agreement on Adynovate with Nektar Therapuetics — a firm that had previously done research with Bayer. Bayer argued that Nektar knew or should have known about its own hemophilia patent and the jury agreed.
Takeda will now have to pay damages covering June 2016 through November 2018. The company said it is disappointed with the outcome of the trial and that it is considering its legal options.
Read the full Retuers report.