Merck & Co. Says JHU Wrongly Got Patents Based on Keytruda Study

Merck & Co. alleges Johns Hopkins University improperly obtained patents covering new indications for the active ingredient in Keytruda based on their joint research collaboration, licensed them to rivals, and demanded “hundreds of millions of dollars” tied to Merck’s sales of the blockbuster cancer drug.

Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC says JHU reached out in late 2012 about using pembrolizumab—Keytruda’s active ingredient, also called pembro—for a clinical study of its efficacy in treating cancer patients whose tumors had the genetic biomarker known as microsatellite instability-high or were “mismatch repair deficient,” according to a complaint filed Nov. 29 in the ...