The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) raised the hand of Meditox in connection with a lawsuit against trade secrets such as theft of botulinum strains between Meditox and Daewoong Pharmaceutical on the 6th (local time).

According to Daewoong Pharmaceutical, the US ITC administrative judge advocated a 10-year ban on imports to the ITC Committee, which had the final decision, saying "Daewoong Pharmaceutical violated Meditox's trade secrets."

This is a non-binding preliminary decision right now, and Daewoong Pharmaceutical explained that the ITC committee will make final decisions, such as destruction, amendment, and citation of all or part of the preliminary decision in November, and will be finalized through the President's approval or veto. .

The two companies are struggling over the source of the botulinum strain, the raw material for the so-called botox, a botulinum toxin preparation.

Meditox and Daewoong Pharm have botulinum toxin formulations'meditoxin' and'nabota' respectively.

Meditox reported that Daewoong Pharmaceutical had stolen its strains and manufacturing process technical documents, and waited for the result after officially suing ITC in January last year for alleged trade secret infringement.

As the preliminary ruling of ITC was issued on this day, the fate of the two companies was sharply mixed.

Currently, Daewoong Pharmaceuticals is drawing a line as a'recommendation' for the preliminary judgment.

However, Daewoong Pharmaceutical said that the preliminary decision of the ITC was'obvious misjudgment' and will proceed with the appeal process upon receiving official notice of the results.

A representative of Daewoong Pharmaceutical said, "It seems that the administrative judge incorrectly judged the false data and false testimony submitted by Meditox as true." "I will definitely win the final decision."

On the other hand, Meditox is said to have virtually won by saying that ITC does not overturn the preliminary judgment once issued.

(Photo = Yonhap News)