Dispute settled
Pasteur Institute spin-off Cellectis SA has settled its intellectual property dispute with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.of Tarrytown, New York, over the use of the French biotech’s patents covering certain uses of homologous recombination for the generation of innovative human therapies, including the development of fully human monoclonal antibodies.
Cellectis will receive an upfront payment of $12,450,000 from Regeneron, and in addition the US company will make an investment of $4.9 million in Cellectis equity.
The deal resolves a dispute between the two around the interpretation of a licence agreement sealed in December 2003. In the deal, Regeneron licensed certain patents and patent applications relating to a process for the specific replacement of a copy of a gene in a particular genome by a process of homologous recombination.
In addition to the $12.5 million upfront, Regeneron will pay Cellectis a low single-digit royalty based on revenue received from any future licenses or sales of Regeneron’s VelociGene or VelocImmune products and services.
No royalties are payable with respect to Regeneron’s VelocImmune licence agreements with AstraZeneca UK Limited or Astellas Pharma Inc., Regeneron’s November 2007 collaboration agreement with Sanofi-Aventis, or any revenue from commercial sales of antibodies from Regeneron’s VelocImmune technology.
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