Mer­ck sues Johns Hop­kins for li­cens­ing Keytru­da patents in se­cret and in con­flict with re­search col­lab­o­ra­tion

Mer­ck filed a law­suit against Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty in Mary­land fed­er­al court on Tues­day, ar­gu­ing that the sto­ried uni­ver­si­ty ob­tained il­le­gal patents as part of its re­search col­lab­o­ra­tion with the com­pa­ny and re­lat­ed to its block­buster can­cer drug Keytru­da (pem­brolizum­ab).

Mer­ck al­leges that the Bal­ti­more-based uni­ver­si­ty ob­tained and li­censed Keytru­da-re­lat­ed patents in se­cret while claim­ing that Keytru­da was de­vel­oped be­fore and in­de­pen­dent of a 2013 re­search col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the two or­ga­ni­za­tions. Hop­kins al­so sought “hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars” tied to Keytru­da sales be­cause of the patents, Mer­ck con­tends.

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