This could be why no one bought UniQure
For about 12 months, UniQure looked like an odds-on candidate for a high-dollar acquisition. Those odds soured in June when the company sold the rights to its lead gene therapy, suggesting to investors that major drug companies were reticent to pay the billions required to buy UniQure outright.
Now it looks like that reticence might have been wise. Yesterday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sided with Pfizer in a dispute over the intellectual property behind UniQure’s gene therapy, which treats hemophilia B. The ruling declares that Pfizer “has demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of prevailing” in court and orders the two parties to argue it out in a process called inter partes review, or IPR.
Such IPR challenges have a mixed record of success, and it’s entirely possible UniQure will win out in the end. But the risk of Pfizer seizing a royalty on the company’s most advanced treatment brought its share price down about 5%. And it might have scared away potential buyers before UniQure inked its licensing deal.
Now it looks like that reticence might have been wise. Yesterday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sided with Pfizer in a dispute over the intellectual property behind UniQure’s gene therapy, which treats hemophilia B. The ruling declares that Pfizer “has demonstrated a reasonable likelihood of prevailing” in court and orders the two parties to argue it out in a process called inter partes review, or IPR.
Such IPR challenges have a mixed record of success, and it’s entirely possible UniQure will win out in the end. But the risk of Pfizer seizing a royalty on the company’s most advanced treatment brought its share price down about 5%. And it might have scared away potential buyers before UniQure inked its licensing deal.
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