The IDO Battle Gets Ugly

This opinion piece presents the opinions of the author. It does not necessarily reflect the views of BioSpace.

IDO inhibitors have become a hotly contested area as companies see the potential for a small molecule that can work with other immuno-therapeutics to make cancers more susceptible to the body’s immune response. Incyte has been at the forefront of the race with epacadostat (helped along by the failure of NewLink Genetics’ navoximod). But Incyte is claiming that the playing field isn’t level, and that Bristol-Myers benefitted from a conspiracy to steal its trade secrets. It goes back to a year before BMS’s 2015 acquisition of Flexus. Incyte says its former director of pharmacology, Jordan Fridman, worked with the founders of Flexus and took secrets about its IDO program to the company, which was subsequently acquired by BMS. Incyte could ask for over $2 billion in damages, with the case now set to go to trial.

Here’s a roundup of these stories and other top legal news from the past month.

• Merck’s Cyber Attack Could Cost Insurers $275M
  
• Biotech Founded By Pharma Bro Shkreli Escapes $43 Million Lawsuit
  
• Pfizer Exposes The Sordid Underbelly Of Drug Prices
  
• Bay Area Acerta Pharma Falsified Early Data on a Cancer Compound, Now in Clinical Trials
  
• Incyte Claims Flexus Lured Away CSO and Its IDO Secrets, Then Sold Itself to Bristol-Myers in $1.25B Deal
  

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