Intellia Not Entitled to ‘Safe Harbor’ in BlueAllele Patent Suit

Intellia Therapeutics Inc. failed to convince a federal judge in Delaware it’s immunized from allegations it infringes three BlueAllele Corp. patents related to technology for inserting healthy DNA into genes to enhance genetic-disease treatments.

Minnesota-based BlueAllele “plausibly alleges that some of Intellia’s accused activities involved basic research not ‘reasonably related’ to FDA approval,” which would trigger the Hatch-Waxman Act’s safe harbor provision, Judge John F. Murphy wrote in a Monday opinion denying Intellia’s motion to dismiss in the case.

“For either that reason or under the ‘patented invention’ prong, Intellia failed to demonstrate that the facts alleged by BlueAllele in ...