Ono Pharma to pay 28 bil. yen to settle patent suit with Nobel winner

Ono Pharmaceutical Co. said Friday it has agreed to pay 5 billion yen ($44 million) to Japanese Nobel laureate in medicine Tasuku Honjo and donate 23 billion yen to a research fund at his university to settle a lawsuit on cancer drug patent royalties. The settlement, reached at the Osaka District Court, resolves the suit in which Honjo, a distinguished professor at Kyoto University and 2018 Nobel Prize winner, had sought about 26.2 billion yen in patent royalties from the company that sells the cancer treatment drug Opdivo, developed based on discoveries by his research team. "We were able to reach a settlement I feel satisfied with. I would like to support fundamental research with the funds that we will get back from the company," Honjo said through his lawyer. In a news conference Friday, Ono Pharmaceutical President Gyo Sagara also welcomed the settlement, which he said "fully resolved" issues between the company and Honjo.

Nobel laureate Honjo failed to declare 2.2 billion yen

Nobel laureate Honjo failed to declare 2.2 billion yen

Japanese Nobel Prize winner and Kyoto University professor Tasuku Honjo, seen in this photo taken on June 13, 2019, failed to declare 2.2 billion yen ($20.7 million) in patent royalties paid by Ono Pharmaceutical Co. over four years through 2018 for the anti-cancer drug Opdivo developed through his studies, which tax authorities recognized as taxable income, a source familiar with the matter said Sept. 10, 2020. Honjo filed a lawsuit in June 2020 against Ono Pharmaceutical over the royalty contract for the cancer drug, for which he received the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2018.

Ono Pharmaceutical to dispute suit filed by Nobel laureate

Ono Pharmaceutical to dispute suit filed by Nobel laureate

File photo taken June 5, 2020, shows the headquarters of Ono Pharmaceutical Co. in Osaka. The company said in a press release issued July 6 that it will "dispute and cope" with a lawsuit filed by Japanese Nobel laureate in medicine Tasuku Honjo the previous month over patent royalties for the cancer treatment drug Opdivo developed based on the discovery of his research team.

Price of cancer drug Opdivo to be halved in Feb. amid user surge

Price of cancer drug Opdivo to be halved in Feb. amid user surge

An advisory panel to the health minister holds a meeting at the ministry in Tokyo on Nov. 16, 2016. The panel approved a government plan to halve the price of the highly expensive cancer medication Opdivo from February, as a surge in users and attendant medical costs has raised fears of burdening the public health insurance system. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo