Canopy Growth Files Lawsuit Against GW Pharma Over Intellectual Property Claims

This article was first published with Benzinga by Nina Zdinjak.

Canadian cannabis giant Canopy Growth Corp filed a federal lawsuit last week against Britain’s GW Pharma.

In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Canopy accuses GW Pharma of unauthorized usage of Canopy’s intellectual property related to a CBD extraction method.

Canopy Growth said it has obtained the intellectual property with its acquisition of Germany’s C3 Cannabinoid Compound Co. in 2019 for more than $250 million, reports Marijuana Business Daily. The same day the lawsuit was filed, Canopy was issued the U.S. patent.

According to Canopy, GW Pharma has been relying on the extraction method in question for the production of its flagship epilepsy drug Epidiolex.

Canopy said that “GW has been monitoring the ’632 Patent family for over fourteen years.”

The complaint has only one goal, which is to end GW’s “unauthorized use of Canopy’s intellectual property” — not to limit “patient access to Epidiolex,” Canopy said. 

Epidiolex is the first FDA-authorized CBD medicine for treating children with severe forms of epilepsy. The medicine was first approved for treatments of seizures connected to Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome.

In July, the FDA also approved Epidiolex for managing seizures related to tuberous sclerosis complex.

“As a policy, we do not comment on any pending litigation except to say that based on our preliminary review of the complaint, we are confident in our position and will vigorously defend against this lawsuit,” GW Pharma said in a statement emailed to Marijuana Business Daily.

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