Ventria Bioscience Wins Exclusion Order Against Infringing and Mislabled Products From Wuhan Healthgen

By: Ventria Bioscience Inc. via Business Wire

September 14, 2022 at 15:27 PM EDT

Ventria’s success in excluding unfairly traded imports secures its ability to continue to invest in the next generation of plant biotechnology innovation

Ventria Bioscience Inc. (Ventria) today announced that the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) completed its review of Administrative Law Judge McNamara’s previous determination and affirmed the prior ruling that Wuhan Healthgen and its distributors violated Section 337 by importing into the United States products that infringe Ventria’s patent and which were marketed and sold without being labeled as originating from China. The ITC issued exclusion orders and cease-and-desist orders which prohibit the importation and distribution of Wuhan Healthgen products that infringe Ventria’s patent and/or fail to conspicuously designate China as the country of origin.

The ITC review once again confirmed the validity of Ventria’s patent related to recombinant albumin proteins manufactured using plant biotechnology. This was the third such review of Ventria’s patent in this area of innovation. Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) denied Wuhan Healthgen’s request for an inter partes review of the patent, on the merits. And in her April decision, Judge McNamara upheld the validity of Ventria’s patent after a weeklong trial.

“The ITC affirmed the validity of the ’951 patent, affirmed that Ventria satisfies the domestic-industry requirement of Section 337, and has excluded Wuhan Healthgen’s infringing products from the U.S. market,” said Beau Jackson of Husch Blackwell, ITC counsel for Ventria. “This is an important victory, and we are also pleased the ITC imposed cease and desist orders against Healthgen’s distributors for concealing the country-of-origin of these products,” he continued.

“This is a win for American innovation and it follows the recent win for Ventria at the PTO,” said Crissa Seymour Cook of Hovey Williams, Ventria’s intellectual property counsel. “Biotechnology is a critical American industry,” she continued. “Companies like Ventria make significant investments to develop new technologies and feel encouraged to continue their research and manufacturing when they know they can protect the results of their efforts through strong patents.”

“Ventria’s ExpressTec platform is a breakthrough innovation that can help improve human health, longevity and quality of life,” said Scott E. Deeter, CEO of Ventria. “This is only possible if the enormous investments in research convert into products that deliver a return on the research investment, and that is only possible if the creativity is protected from copycats who do not shoulder the trials and tribulations of the innovative process,” said Mr. Deeter.

Supporting documents:

ITC Letter to US Customs and Border Protection Instituting Exclusion Order

Letter from ITC Chairman Johanson to President Biden

Letter from ITC Chairman Johanson to Treasury Secretary Yellen

Letter from ITC Chairman Johanson to USTR Ambassador Katherine Tai

Letter from Kansas Governor Laura Kelly

Letter from Colorado Governor Jared Polis

Letter from US Senators from Kansas : Senator Moran & Senator Marshall

Letter from US Senators from Colorado: Senator Bennet & Senator Hickenlooper

Letter from Kansas Congressional Delegation: Ron Estes; Tracey Mann; Jake LaTurner

Letter from Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids

Letter from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt

Letter from Kansas Chamber CEO Alan Cobb

Letter from BioKansas CEO Dr. Sonia Hall

Letter from Colorado BioScience Association CEO Elyse Blazevich

Letter from Coalition for a Prosperous America CEO Michael Stumo

About Ventria Bioscience Inc.

Ventria Bioscience is a privately held biotechnology company whose vision is to improve human longevity and quality of life by developing and commercializing innovative medicines, functional food ingredients, cell-culture media components and biologic formulation excipients derived from its breakthrough plant biotechnology: ExpressTec. Ventria is the parent company of CuraVive (www.CuraVive.com) and InVitria (www.InVitria.com). More about Ventria’s ExpressTec Click Here.

For more information about Ventria Bioscience Inc. Click Here.