Seoul, May 21
SK bioscience, a biotech arm of South Korea's SK Group, on Wednesday said it has won a patent lawsuit against global pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over pneumococcal vaccine components.
In 2020, Pfizer filed a lawsuit with a Korean court, claiming that SK bioscience's export of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) components and finished products for research to Russia infringed on the composition patent of its vaccine Prevnar 13, news agency.
South Korea's Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court's ruling that SK bioscience's PCV13 components do not fall within the scope of Pfizer's patent claims.
The court also ruled that the production and export of PCV13 products for research purposes do not constitute patent infringement.
SK bioscience developed SKYPneumo, South Korea's first domestically produced PCV13, in 2016.
However, due to a separate patent dispute with Pfizer, the company remains restricted from manufacturing and selling the vaccine in South Korea until 2027, when the related patents are set to expire.