Capsida Biotherapeutics Inc.—a  Thousand Oaks, CA-based emerging biotechnology company—recently emerged from stealth mode with $ 140 million in start-up capital. Capsida secured a $50 million Series A commitment from Versant Ventures and Westlake Village BioPartners, and a multi-year strategic collaboration and option agreement with AbbVie that provides $90 million in up front and equity investment capital in addition to potential future option, development, and commercial milestone payments. Capsida is using an adeno-associated virus (AAV)…

In Part I of this three-part series, we focused on three mRNA technology market players: BioNTech, Moderna and CureVac. In this second post, we will focus on Translate BIO, Arcturus Therapeutics, and eTheRNA and discuss certain issues relating to lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery technology. More mRNA Market Players Translate Bio Translate Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: TBIO) is headquartered in Lexington, MA, and as of April 2021, has a market capitalization of over $1.3…

The Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling in Google v. Oracle ended a decade-long legal battle between the tech giants, finding that Google’s copying of over 11,000 lines of Oracle’s Sun Java application programming interface (“API”) code was permissible fair use under copyright law. This ruling means that Google won’t have to pay billions of dollars in damages to Oracle. It also has huge implications for the broader software and tech industries. While the Supreme Court…

A patent gives the patent holder the right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering to sell, or importing an invention covered by the patent.  However, the right only lasts for a limited period of time and will disappear upon the expiration of the patent.  After the patent expires, the invention will fall into the public domain. For a patent holder, as well as its partners and competitors, understanding how long a patent’s life…

Shortly after we posted about Moderna, Inc.’s October 2020 pledge not to enforce its COVID-19-related patents during the pandemic, the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency regulatory approval for two COVID-19 vaccines produced by Moderna and BioNTech (with Pfizer), making these groups the first to ever enter the commercial market with mRNA-based therapies. This little-known and never-before-approved mRNA technology has since been widely administered and represents a primary weapon being used to…

Bigfoot Biomedical®, a Milpitas, CA emerging company, recently announced that it has secured new financing of up to $57 million in combined debt and equity financing from Madryn Asset Management LP, an alternative asset management firm that invests in innovative healthcare companies specializing in unique and transformative products, technologies, and services. Founded in 2014, Bigfoot focused on broadening access to innovative solutions for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Bigfoot Biomedical is…

Owning a federal trademark registration provides the ability to exclude others from using a certain word or design in association with specific goods or services. In the United States this exclusivity of rights, however, can also derive from actual use in commerce without a federal registration. In this case, it is critical to pinpoint the earliest date of use in commerce in order to prove to be the first to have used a certain mark…