IPR Petition Filed on Genentech Patent Directed to Method of Producing Polypeptides

On August 16, bioeq filed a petition for inter partes review of U.S. Patent No. 6,716,602, titled “Metabolic rate shifts in fermentations expressing recombinant proteins.”  The patent is owned by Genentech and is directed to a method for increasing product yield of a polypeptide produced by recombinant host cells.  We will be posting the important documents for this IPR (number IPR2016-01608) under the newly created “General Biologic Patents” heading on our IPR tracker page.  The papers bioeq filed do not indicate what product the IPR relates to, but bioeq is reportedly involved in developing a biosimilar of Lucentis® (ranibizumab) and a biosimilar of Eylea® (aflibercept).