Bristol-Myers Sues Merck Over US Immunotherapy Patent

“Merck is threatening to exploit that invention,” known as immunotherapy, with a later-developed method of treatment, in violation of a May 20 patent, Bristol-Myers said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware. The New York-based company is seeking unspecified damages.

Merck yesterday won US approval for Keytruda, an immunotherapy chemically known as pembrolizumab, to treat advanced melanoma, the deadliest version of skin cancer. Bristol-Myers and Merck have been in a race with

and

, who are also working on similar treatments, and the emerging class of drugs is seen as a new chapter in cancer therapy, with the potential to be applied to multiple forms of the disease.

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Source: Bloomberg