NuCana falls 36% after setback for patent dispute in EU for Gilead’s antiviral
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U.K.-based biotech NuCana (NASDAQ:NCNA) lost ~36% in the morning hours Monday after announcing that an EU panel rejected the validity of its claims related to European Patent 2,955,190 that covers sofosbuvir, Gileadâs (GILD) FDA-approved Hepatitis C therapy.
Rejecting the previous decisions of the Examination Division and the Opposition Division of the European Patent Office (EPO), the agencyâs Technical Board of Appeal issued an oral judgment invalidating the 190 patent, the company said.

While a court in Dusseldorf, Germany, had upheld the views of the EPOâs Opposition Division in July 2022, on Mar. 21, the Patents Court of England and Wales rejected the patent's validity in the U.K.
NuCana (NCNA) notes that none of these judgments will impact the patent protection on any of its anti-cancer ProTides, which it says are covered by certain other patients that are not challenged in this dispute.

Read: In January, Seeking Alpha contributor E. Roudasev issued a Strong Buy on NuCana (NCNA) following an in-depth look at the dispute.