Kind Pharmaceuticals LLC, a Sino-US pharmaceutical company, along with its Chinese affiliate Hangzhou Andao Pharmaceutical Ltd, has announced an amicable resolution to a trade secrets dispute with Fibrogen Inc. (NASDAQ: FGEN). The dispute originated from a lawsuit initiated by Fibrogen in November 2022 against Andao, Kind Pharma, and individual defendants Liu Dong, CEO of Kind, and Deng Shaojiang, CSO of Kind, who were previously employed by Fibrogen. According to a press release from Kind, the parties have reached a settlement that requires no financial compensation from either side.
Kind Pharma, established by Liu in 2013, saw him join in a leadership role after his departure from Fibrogen. The lawsuit accused Liu and Deng of utilizing Fibrogen’s proprietary hypoxia-inducible factor prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor (HIF-PHI) technology to establish Kind and Andao, claiming that Fibrogen should be recognized as the patent owner and share in future profits.
With the legal issues now resolved, Kind and Andao are free to continue the development of their HIF-PHI pipeline, spearheaded by AND017, a small-molecule inhibitor of HIF-PH for the treatment of anemia in chronic kidney disease. Fibrogen, which developed the world’s first HIF-PHI, roxadustat, markets the drug in China and Europe in collaboration with AstraZeneca and Astellas.- Flcube.com
