The Court Ruled, "Daewoong Acquired ‘Nabota' Illegally”…Medy Tox 'Wins' in the 1st Civil Court Case 

The Seoul Central District Court on February 10 ruled in favor of Medy Tox in the first trial of a civil lawsuit alleging that Daewoong Pharmaceutical (Daewoong) illegally acquired Medy Tox's strains and manufacturing process trade secrets.

The court's 61st Civil Division (Deputy Chief Judge Kwon Oh-Seok) ruled, "Daewoong's 'Nabota' was developed through stealing Medy Tox's botulinum strain and manufacturing process,".

The court banned the manufacture and sale of Daewoong's botulinum toxin products, including Nabota, and ordered the surrender of the strains and the destruction of the toxin formulations already produced.

The court also ordered Daewoong to pay out 40 billion won to Medy Tox as compensate for damages.

In relation to this, Medy Tox explained that the judge found that the strain used by Daewoong to produce botulinum toxin was derived from Medy Tox's strain and the claim that it was isolated and identified from domestic soil was difficult to believe in light of the evidence.

The company added that the judge saw that the manufacturing process used to produce botulinum toxin was developed based on an illegally acquired manufacturing process by Daewoong, and the claim that it had been independently developed was difficult to believe based on the excessively short development period and development records.

An official from Medy Tox said, "The court's decision is a clear judgment based on irrefutable scientific evidence including genome sequencing, and we are very pleased to see that justice and fairness are alive and well in Korea.".

Medy Tox won in the court case 5 years and 4 months after filing a lawsuit against Daewoong in the Seoul Central District Court in October 2017, alleging that its botulinum strain and manufacturing process were stolen.

[WIKI KOREA=Cho Pil Hyun, Staff Reporter]