Sun Pharma gains as unit gets relief in patent infringement case

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries rose 1.4% to Rs 419.80 at 09:35 IST on BSE after the company's subsidiary was awarded preliminary injunctive relief prohibiting Biofrontera from using its trade secrets.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 December 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 324.81 points, or 0.91% to 35,974.75

On the BSE, 1.15 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 8.31 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 424 and a low of Rs 418.70 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 678.80 on 6 September 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 391.10 on 11 December 2018.

DUSA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (DUSA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries announced that DUSA has been granted preliminary injunctive relief by a federal district court prohibiting defendants Biofrontera Inc., Biofrontera Bioscience GmbH, Biofrontera Pharma GmbH, and Biofrontera AG (together known as Biofrontera) from using DUSA's confidential and proprietary trade secret information.

DUSA had filed a lawsuit against the Biofrontera defendants earlier this year in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The lawsuit alleges trade secret misappropriation and patent infringement of DUSA's photodynamic therapy (PDT) patents, US 9,723,991 and US 8,216,289, covering DUSA's product, LEVULAN KERASTICK (aminolevulinic acid HCl) for topical solution, 20% used with DUSA's BLU-U Blue Light Photodynamic Therapy Illuminator.

DUSA, in its amended complaint filed in July 2018, had additionally alleged that the Biofrontera defendants misappropriated confidential and trade secret information from DUSA and improperly obtained confidential DUSA information from former DUSA employees to sell and market defendants' own products, including Ameluz (aminolevulinic acid hydrochloride) gel 10% and BF-RhodoLED. The lawsuit seeks an assessment of both damages and injunctive relief against the Biofrontera defendants.

DUSA filed a motion for preliminary injunctive relief in November 2018 requesting an order prohibiting Biofrontera from using DUSA's confidential and proprietary trade secret information to sell and market its own products, including Ameluz and BF-RhodoLED. The court issued a preliminary injunction order, finding that Biofrontera by its own admission is in possession of at least 600 DUSA documents obtained from 20+ employees that have left DUSA for Biofrontera in recent years, that these documents contain confidential and proprietary information, and that Biofrontera has competed against DUSA unfairly exploiting know-how that took DUSA years to develop.

The court's order enjoins and prohibits Biofrontera from making use of or disseminating DUSA's sales and financial information, customer lists and customer target lists, training and marketing materials, standard operating procedures, technical information, and unpublished clinical data, and any derivations thereof, effective immediately. The court also stated that at this early stage, it would appear that DUSA has a reasonable prospect of success on the merits.

On a consolidated basis, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries reported net loss of Rs 108.84 crore in Q2 September 2018 compared with net profit of Rs 1001.79 crore in Q2 September 2017. Total income rose 5.56% to Rs 7288.78 crore in Q2 September 2018 over Q2 September 2017.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries is the world's fifth largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company and India's top pharmaceutical company.

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