Sarep­ta faces an­oth­er gene ther­a­py hic­cup as Re­genxbio sues over Jim Wilson's patent

It turns out a reg­u­la­to­ry de­lay isn’t the on­ly bump on Sarep­ta’s road to gene ther­a­py glo­ry.

The biotech is be­ing sued by Re­genxbio, which is al­leg­ing that its slate of gene ther­a­py pro­grams, in­clud­ing two for Duchenne mus­cu­lar dy­s­tro­phy and limb-gir­dle mus­cu­lar dy­s­tro­phy in­fringes on a patent orig­i­nal­ly owned by the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia.

The law­suit, which was first re­port­ed by Bloomberg Law, adds an­oth­er wrin­kle as Sarep­ta strives to stay in the lead in a race to de­liv­er the first ge­net­ic fix for Duchenne mus­cu­lar dy­s­tro­phy. Af­ter mak­ing its name with two an­ti­sense drugs — nei­ther of which has been proven to have an ef­fect against the crip­pling dis­ease — the Cam­bridge, MA-based biotech has been viewed as the fron­trun­ner ver­sus Pfiz­er and trou­ble-prone Sol­id Bio. Roche was im­pressed enough to pay $1.15 bil­lion to ac­quire ex-US rights to the pro­gram.

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