Editing ImClone Systems (section)

==Yeda/Aventis/Imclone patent dispute==
Yeda Research and Development, a company set up to commercialize and market the products of research at the [[Weizmann Institute of Science]] in Israel,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.yedarnd.com/|title = Technology Transfer Israel |publisher= YEDARND|date = <!--not specified-->|access-date = December 25, 2013}}</ref> challenged the Aventis-owned patent, licensed by Imclone, for the use of anti-[[Epidermal growth factor receptor]] antibodies in combination with chemotherapy, to slow the growth of certain tumors. This is the so-called '866' patent,<ref>{{cite web | title= US Patent #6,217,866 : Monoclonal antibodies specific to human epidermal growth factor receptor and therapeutic methods employing same | url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US6217866}}</ref><ref>{{patent|US|6217866|"Monoclonal antibodies specific to human epidermal growth factor receptor and therapeutic methods employing same."}}</ref> which was filed in 1989 by [[Rhone-Poulenc|Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer]], issued in 2001, and on which Joseph Schlessinger was listed as first-named inventor.<ref name="USA">{{cite news | url=https://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2006-09-14-imclone-usat_x.htm | title=ImClone goes up against patent dispute | date= 2006-09-14 |newspaper=USA Today}}</ref>

Joseph Schlessinger's former colleagues at the Weizmann Institute, in particular [[Michael Sela]], claimed to have come up with this concept alongside Schlessinger when they worked together there years earlier,<ref>{{cite journal|journal=J Natl Cancer Inst |date=Dec 21, 1988 |volume=80 |issue=20|pages=1605–11| title=Efficacy of antibodies to epidermal growth factor receptor against KB carcinoma in vitro and in nude mice |vauthors=Aboud-Pirak E, Hurwitz E, Pirak ME, Bellot F, Schlessinger J, Sela M |pmid=3193478 |doi=10.1093/jnci/80.20.1605}}</ref> and Yeda challenged the Aventis patent in the [[United States]]. Schlessinger testified in court that the idea of combining the anti-EGFR antibody that his lab had developed with chemotherapy in cancer treatment was his own idea. However, the Weizmann Institute scientists provided extensive documentation that they had been developing this idea using an antibody against EGFR that Schlessinger's laboratory had developed and generated, and that he had given them for these studies.<ref name=USA /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/rulings/03CV08484_opinion_091806.pdf |title=Court ruling on Yeda vs Aventis/Imclone case |access-date=2009-09-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927101421/http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/rulings/03CV08484_opinion_091806.pdf |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Schlessinger claims to have initiated the idea of this use in combination therapy, but had not documented his research and ideas as thoroughly, leaving him forced to rely on his recollections of the events that led to the patent filing some 17 years before Yeda mounted their challenge.<ref name=USA />

The court ruled that Yeda are the sole owners of the disputed patent in the U.S., while Yeda and Sanofi-Aventis co-own the 866 Patent's foreign counterparts. Following the ruling, ImClone and Sanofi-Aventis agreed to settle the dispute with Yeda, for $120 million, with each company paying Yeda $60 million.<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54007/ | title = ImClone settles drug patent dispute | journal = The Scientist |date=11 Dec 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081013141416/http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54007/ | archive-date = 2008-10-13| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=ImClone and Sanofi-Aventis Settle Patent Litigation with Yeda Researc…|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2007_Dec_7/ai_n27469134/|date=2012-07-09|website=Business Library|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709044214/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2007_Dec_7/ai_n27469134/|archive-date=9 July 2012|access-date=2020-05-13}}</ref> In return, ImClone were also granted a worldwide license to technology covered by the 866 Patent, and agreed to pay a small royalty on Erbitux sales to Yeda.