Nobel laureate Honjo, Ono Pharma settle royalty suit
November 13, 2021
OSAKA (Jiji Press) — Nobel Prize winner Tasuku Honjo and Ono Pharmaceutical Co. settled Friday their lawsuit over patent royalties for cancer immunotherapy drug Opdivo.
The Osaka-based drugmaker will pay Honjo, special professor at Kyoto University, ¥5 billion in settlement and donate ¥23 billion to a fund the university will set up to support young researchers.
In June last year, Honjo filed a damages lawsuit against Ono with the Osaka District Court, demanding that the company pay about ¥26.2 billion.
Honjo claimed that Ono paid him only 1% of the settlement money it received from a U.S. firm in an Opdivo patent infringement litigation although the drugmaker should have offered 40%.
Ono rebutted that it had proposed to pay 40% of the money but Honjo turned it down. As a result, the company paid him 1% under the 2006 licensing terms, it said.
Honjo won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with a U.S. scientist, for the basic research that led to the development of nivolumab, which Ono makes and sells as Opdivo.
The two sides entered into settlement talks in September, in the wake of the court’s advice to compromise.
“I want basic research supported for the long term by funds from companies capitalizing on scientific findings and achievements as well as goodwill donations,” Honjo said in a comment released after the settlement.
"Society" POPULAR ARTICLE
-
Typhoon Kong-rey to Reach South of Japan’s Okinawa on Thursday; JWA Urges High Alert for Strong Winds, Heavy Rain
-
Typhoon Trami Forms East of Philippines, Moving Westward
-
‘Women Over 30 Would Have Uteruses Removed’; Remarks of CPJ Leader, Novelist Naoki Hyakuta Get Wide Attention
-
Typhoon Kong-rey Expected to Turn into Tropical Storm after Possible Pass Over Taiwan
-
Sapporo Sees Season’s 1st Snowfall; Snow Comes 8 Days Earlier Than Average
JN ACCESS RANKING
- Streaming Services Boost Anime Popularity Overseas; Former ‘Geeky’ Interest More Beloved Among Gen Z than 3 Major U.S. Sports
- G20 Sees Soft Landing for Global Economy; Leaders Pledge to Resist Protectionism as Trump Calls for Imported Goods Flat Tariff
- 2024 POLLS: Ruling Camp Likely to Win Lower House Majority
- Chinese Rights Lawyer’s Wife Seeks Support in Japan; Sophie Luo Calls for Beijing to Free Ding Jiaxi, Xu Zhiyong
- Chinese Social Media Still Full of Anti-Japanese Posts 1 Month After Boy’s Fatal Stabbing; Malicious Videos Gain Large Number of Views