AbbVie sues Genmab, claiming trade secrets theft
US District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle.
A multibillion-dollar partnership between AbbVie and Genmab risks being soured by a lawsuit claiming misappropriation of trade secrets.
The complaint filed in a Seattle court alleges that Genmab, its subsidiary ProfoundBio – which was acquired last year – and former AbbVie employees stole trade secrets relating to the use of technology used to improve the pharmacological properties of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) medicines.
Specifically, it focuses on the use of disaccharides to improve the hydrophilicity of drug-linkers that were used in ProfoundBio's rinatabart sesutecan (Rina-S), a phase 3 ovarian cancer candidate at the heart of Genmab's takeover of the Chinese company, as well as other ADCs in its pipeline.
In a statement, Genmab said that it "categorically refutes" the allegations and will "vigorously defend" its position in the court case.
According to the text of the complaint, AbbVie is claiming that ProfoundBio was having little success in its efforts to develop its ADC pipeline and "Instead of doing the hard work necessary for success…took a shortcut with the help of two ex-AbbVie employees", named as Drs Tae Han and Julia Gavrilyuk.
"Armed with AbbVie's trade secrets and confidential information, ProfoundBio turned its luck around, filing patent applications and advancing a clinical pipeline," the court document continues.
The lawsuit also claims that ProfoundBio 'cashed out' by advertising the trade secrets as its own inventions, attracting Genmab's attention, which agreed a $1.8 billion deal to buy the company, adding: "During its diligence, Genmab honed in on the precise features that ProfoundBio, Dr Han, and Dr Gavrilyuk stole from AbbVie."
In its response, Genmab said that AbbVie is not asserting or enforcing any patent rights against the defendants, adding that as it is aware AbbVie has not pursued the development of any products that use the alleged trade secrets.
It also alleges that AbbVie has now filed a series of lawsuits against competitors claiming misappropriation of trade secrets by former employees, pointing out that Rina-S is a potential competitor to AbbVie's Elahere (mirvetuximab soravtansine) ovarian cancer therapy which is in the same class.
Genmab and AbbVie have been working together for many years, launching the first product arising from a $3.9 billion cancer partnership signed in 2020 – CD20xCD3 bispecific antibody Epkinly (epcoritamab) – in 2023. They are also collaborating on an anti-CD37 antibody and a CD3x5T4 bispecific antibody.
"While the lawsuit is pending, [our] collaboration with AbbVie related to epcoritamab will continue unaffected," said Genmab. "We remain fully committed to the epcoritamab broad clinical development program and our commercialisation efforts."
