Daiichi Sankyo shut down its South San Francisco subsidiary Plexxikon earlier this year. Now a new startup is looking to forge its own path — with 10 Plexxikon veterans, five assets from the now-defunct biotech and a focus around a new target.
Plexxikon, a member of the Daiichi Sankyo Group and a leader in structure-guided discovery and development of novel small molecule pharmaceuticals, today announced that it has won its patent infringement lawsuit against Novartis. In a jury trial at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Novartis conceded infringement and sought to invalidate Plexxikon’s patents covering Tafinlar® on the grounds of anticipation, written description and enablement. The jury rejected Novartis’s arguments, upheld the validity of Plexxikon’s patents, and found Novartis’s infringement was willful. Plexxikon was awarded damages of $178 million for past infringement of its patents and will receive additional royalty payments for future sales of Tafinlar® in the United States through the life of the patents.
Plexxikon, a member of the Daiichi Sankyo Group and a leader in structure-guided discovery and development of novel small molecule pharmaceuticals, today announced that Chao Zhang, PhD, has been promoted to chief executive officer from chief scientific officer. Dr Zhang will succeed Gideon Bollag, PhD, who will transition to a part-time position as chief biologist. In addition, Marguerite Hutchinson, JD, has been promoted to chief operating officer and general counsel. These changes are effective July 1, 2021.