Breast Milk Antitrust Patent Case To Advance

Prolacta Bioscience can’t dodge claims that it’s trying to monopolize the market for breast milk-based nutritional products for preterm infants, an Oregon federal judge ruled, reported Bloomberg.

The ruling comes in a complex patent lawsuit filed by Ni-Q, which initially sought a declaration that its competing products didn’t violate Prolacta’s intellectual property rights. The case was filed in the US District Court for the District of Oregon.

In addition to challenging the patents, Ni-Q alleged violations of Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act and later added antitrust claims. The suit accuses Prolacta of fraudulently obtaining bogus patents. The patent at issue was Prolacta’s US Patent No. 8,628,921. As summarized in the court decision, the claimed methods were “intended to standardize nutritional content in donated human mammary fluid and to ensure that the donor of a given sample is a match to a previously-identified donor.” Prolacta stated the invention addressed “two different problems—human replacement milk that is nutritionally standardized (particularly important for preterm babies), and milk that is certifiably from a particular donor.”

Full Content: Bloomberg

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