Sloan Kettering and Juno Therapeutics win over $1.1 billion after jury verdict and post-trial motions in patent dispute with Kite Pharma/Gilead involving CAR-T therapy
Client(s) Sloan Kettering Institute and Juno Therapeutics, a Bristol Myers Squibb company
On behalf of patentee Sloan Kettering Institute and exclusive licensee Juno Therapeutics (a subsidiary of Celgene Corporation, a Bristol Myers Squibb company), Jones Day and co-counsel prevailed in a jury trial that spanned eight days and involved 22 witnesses, wherein the jury awarded our clients $752 million in compensation for the infringement of their patents by Kite Pharma, Inc. (a Gilead Sciences, Inc. company) through the making and selling of its infringing CAR-T therapy, YESCARTA®. Sloan Kettering and Juno proved that Yescarta infringed U.S. Patent No. 7,446,190, directed to chimeric antigen receptors, defeating Kite's claims that the certificate of correction of the '190 patent was invalid, and that the asserted claims were invalid under 35 U.S.C. Section 112 for lack of enablement and lack of adequate written description. On December 13, 2019, in the Central District of California, a 9-member jury unanimously found that Kite willfully infringed the patent and awarded Sloan Kettering and Juno the full amount of damages sought.
Following trial, on post-trial motions, the court awarded the plaintiffs over $778 million on the jury verdict to account for Kite's infringing sales of Yescarta not accounted for by the time of trial, enhanced damages of over $389 million for Kite's willful infringement, and an ongoing royalty of 27.6% on Yescarta revenues through patent expiration. The court uniformly denied Kite's post-trial motions to overturn the jury verdict and to obtain a new trial.
Juno Therapeutics, Inc. et al. v. Kite Pharma, Inc., No. 2-17-cv-07639 (C.D. Cal.)
