Per a securities filing by InventisBio Co (益方生物科技（上海）股份有限公司) on November 16, 2022, Mirati Therapeutics sued InventisBio for 99 Million RMB (~$14 million USD) in a trade secret misappropriation case. Mirati requested an injunction, damages, and confirmation of ownership of certain patents and applications in a filing with the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court that was received by InventisBio on November 14, 2022. This case highlights the increased attention recently paid to trade secret misappropriation in China including a 60 million RMB settlement in a microelectronics case and a 159 million RMB verdict in a vanillin case.

Mirati asserted that trade secrets of a certain preclinical research project of Mirati were the same or substantially the same as trade secrets used by InventisBio and a subsidiary and were being infringed.  Mirati also alleged that the patents and applications obtained by InventisBio and a subsidiary should be owned by Mirati and its subsidiary.

Mirati is focused on targeted solutions for genetic and immunological drivers of cancer. Some of their targeted molecules include Adagrasib (MRTX849) – a small molecule inhibitor of KRAS^G12C that is optimized to sustain target inhibition. This attribute could be important to treat KRAS^G12C mutated cancers, as the KRAS^G12C protein regenerates every 24 to 48 hours; MRTX1133 – a small molecule inhibitor of the KRAS^G12D mutation; Sitravatinib – an investigational spectrum-selective receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) inhibitor that can potentially stimulate the body’s immune response to fight cancer; and MRTX1719 – an investigational synthetic lethal PRMT5 inhibitor for the treatment of methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP)-deleted cancers.

InventisBio has developed drugs covering non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer and other solid tumors, as well as hyperuricemia and gout and other metabolic diseases.

InventisBio states that:

The final judgment is still uncertain, and it is currently impossible to predict the impact on the company’s current or future profits. The final actual impact is subject to the court’s effective judgment. The lawsuit does not involve the company’s clinical pipeline, will not affect the company’s overall research and development and application progress of products under research, and has no major impact on the company’s normal operations.

The securities filing is available from the Shanghai Securities News here (Chinese only).