KYOTO – Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo plans to bring his patent royalty dispute with Ono Pharmaceutical Co. to court as early as September, seeking an additional payment of ¥15 billion, according to informed sources.
In the planned lawsuit with the Osaka District Court, Honjo will claim that he is entitled to 10 percent, or about ¥15.4 billion, of the amount Ono Pharmaceutical and U.S. drug maker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. received from U.S. drug giant Merck & Co. when they settled a patent infringement lawsuit. Ono Pharmaceutical set aside some ¥400 million at a regional legal affairs bureau from January 2017 to March 2018 to make payments to Honjo.
Honjo, a professor at Kyoto University, won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with a U.S. scientist for their immunology research that led to the development of the cancer drug Opdivo, which is at the center of the royalty dispute.
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In October 2006, Honjo and Ono Pharmaceutical entered into a contract that limited his compensation to 1 percent or less of the drug’s sales. He is now claiming the compensation rate should be raised and considering filing a separate lawsuit.
In a statement issued through his lawyer, Honjo said that he hopes to restore good business-academia collaboration as soon as possible. Still, if the Osaka-based drugmaker fails to come up with a new offer, triggering a lawsuit,
he said he is willing to abide by the court’s ruling.
A public relations official for Ono Pharmaceutical said the company is not considering revising the contract but is planning a donation to his university to settle the dispute.