Daewoong: "US ITC Fails to Prove Strain Misappropriation... Serious Error"

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] Daewoong Pharmaceutical stated regarding the preliminary ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that "it clearly acknowledged the failure to prove any identifiable act of misappropriation," and expressed confidence in winning the final judgment scheduled for November.

On the 13th, the company announced that after analyzing the ITC's decision document, it identified several significant errors. Although the ITC recently issued a preliminary ruling that "Daewoong Pharmaceutical infringed on Medytox's trade secrets," the company claims this decision was based on incorrect grounds. Daewoong Pharmaceutical emphasized, "The ITC is not an institution that judges disputes based on evidence but an administrative agency that operates to protect U.S. industry," and "it acknowledged that nothing was proven regarding when and how Medytox's strains were misappropriated."

Furthermore, the company stressed that the ITC merely 'inferred' the misappropriation of trade secrets based on Medytox's unilateral claims. Daewoong Pharmaceutical added, "Deciding on trade secret misappropriation solely on inference without concrete evidence is a clear misjudgment," and "citing only Medytox's experts' claims despite evident differences in genetic analysis is equally far from the substantive truth."

Daewoong Pharmaceutical also highlighted that the ITC did not find any infringement of Medytox's rights during this decision process. The ruling specified infringement only concerning Allergan's Botox products, a U.S. company. Additionally, Daewoong Pharmaceutical argued that the lawsuit proceeded under unfair conditions, citing Medytox's submission of forgery issues and perjury by Medytox's witnesses during the trial. The company emphasized, "The ITC administrative law judge continued biased and unjust judgments, concluding strain misappropriation based solely on inference and deciding that Allergan's rights, which lack trade secrets, were infringed."

They added, "Medytox is voluntarily playing a role that harms national interests while only helping the foreign company Allergan," and "this ITC lawsuit is merely an extension of Allergan's monopoly strategy."