AbbVie claims that Genmab turned a blind eye to trade secret theft allegedly used to support the development of ProfoundBio’s investigational antibody-drug conjugates. Genmab acquired ProfoundBio in May 2024.
AbbVie has sued long-time partner Genmab, claiming that the Danish biotech “misappropriated” trade secrets related to antibody-drug conjugate technology developed at the Chicago-based company, according to Genmab’s press announcement of the matter.
The complaint, filed late last week in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, focuses on certain techniques to improve antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). According to Genmab’s statement, AbbVie’s claims pertain to rinatabart sesutecan (Rina-S), an investigational FRα-targeting ADC being developed by Washington-based ProfoundBio, which Genmab acquired in May 2024. AbbVie’s allegations also cover other ADC candidates from ProfoundBio.
“AbbVie is not asserting or enforcing any patent rights against the defendants,” Genmab noted in its press announcement. “To Genmab’s knowledge, AbbVie has not pursued any development of products incorporating their alleged trade secrets.”
According to reporting from Fierce Biotech, AbbVie is accusing Genmab of turning a blind eye to trade secret theft that occurred at ProfoundBio related to technology involved in building ADCs, ahead of Genmab’s acquisition of the company. The lawsuit names several former AbbVie employees as well as Tae Han, the founder of ProfoundBio.
The suit claims that Han “knowingly and intentionally encouraged and enticed” the disclosure of trade secrets related to ADC technology developed at AbbVie.
Genmab “categorically refutes” AbbVie’s allegations and intends to “vigorously defend” against the claims.
Rina-S is currently in late-stage development for ovarian cancer and other solid tumors that express the FRα protein. Its toxic payload is exatecan, a second-generation topoisomerase I inhibitor that can damage DNA in cancer cells, triggering their death. According to Genmab, Rina-S “has the potential to address a broader patient population in ovarian cancer than is served by current standard of care, including AbbVie’s Elahere.”
The trade secret complaint, the biotech continued, “is yet another lawsuit among multiple recent lawsuits filed by AbbVie against competitors alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets by former AbbVie employees.”
In September 2024, the pharma sued BeiGene, claiming it “enticed and encouraged” a former AbbVie employee to share protected information, according to Fierce Biotech. Both companies are advancing next-generation BTK inhibitors for cancer. Meanwhile, in December 2023, AbbVie slapped Adcentrx Therapeutics with a lawsuit, alleging that the biotech hired a former AbbVie scientist to extract information regarding a certain antibody cancer program at the pharma, as per Reuters.
Genmab and AbbVie are long-time oncology partners, joining hands in June 2020 to advance and commercialize three bispecific therapies. The star of this collaboration is Epkinly, which won the FDA’s approval in June 2024 for relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma. Under their 2020 agreement, the companies are jointly commercializing Epkinly in U.S. and Japan, while AbbVie will take charge in other territories.
In its news release over the weekend, Genmab said AbbVie’s trade secret lawsuit will not affect the Epkinly partnership. “We remain fully committed to the epcoritamab broad clinical development program and our commercialization efforts,” the biotech noted.
