The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) Thursday released the full document of its final ruling that acknowledged Daewoong Pharmaceutical had stolen Medytox's botulinum toxin strain, but the companies vowed to continue their legal battle.
According to the document, the commission concluded that the genetic evidence proved that Daewoong Pharmaceutical had taken the strain in question from Medytox, based on Professor Paul Keim's witness statement at the Northern Arizona University. However, the ITC denied the strain itself as Medytox's trade secret.
The U.S. agency imposed a ban on the U.S. imports of Daewoong’s botulinum toxin Nabota for 21 months, claiming that it violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act.
Both companies admit that the strain is not a trade secret, and that ITC's final ruling was based on the infringement of the manufacturing process.
After the ITC released the full document, Daewoong and Medytox expressed their intentions to go ahead with their legal battle.
Daewoong welcomed the ITC's verdict for denying the strain as a trade secret, but said it would appeal the alleged infringement part. "We have sufficient grounds for the independent development of our manufacturing technology for botulinum strains," a Daewoong official said. "Medytox's manufacturing process had been opened decades ago, and was quite different from ours."
The official added that Daewoong would correct the errors with the U.S. Court of Appeals by proving that ITC's decision regarding the infringement of process technology is a clear misjudgment.
Medytox said it plans to request Daewoong to stop using its manufacturing process and return the right to the strain based on ITC's ruling. It would also seek disposal and compensation of the products already been made and sold in the market.
Medytox expressed dissatisfaction that the strain was not recognized as a trade secret, but welcome that its rival's infringement had been confirmed.
A Medytox official said, "The genetic analysis revealed that Daewoong's strain was derived from ours, but it was not recognized as a trade secret and thus was not subject to ITC regulations."
The official added that the ITC had revealed that the manufacturing process was stolen as a trade secret, which explains why the agency slapped an import ban on Daewoong’s products.
In response to Medytox's claim, Daewoong Pharmaceutical refuted that the experts have shown limitations and errors in the genetic analysis method. The company stressed that ITC admitted its analysis limits, having failed to present evidence that the strain had been stolen.