Canopy Growth Sues GW Pharmaceuticals Over Extraction Patent Infringement
January 4, 2021Canopy Growth is suing British drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals for using a cannabis extraction process that Canopy holds the patent for. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for Western Texas, alleges that GW Pharmaceuticals derives the highly concentrated CBD used in its anti-epileptic medication Epidiolex using carbon dioxide extraction. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to Canopy Growth on December 22 of this year for just such a process, the suit further notes.
“On information and belief, the success of GW’s Epidiolex is based, at least in part, on GW’s use, without authority, of the CO2 extraction process described and claimed in the patent,” Canopy claims, further noting, “GW has set a list price for Epidiolex of $1,235 per 100-ml. bottle, with a weighted average gross price of approximately $32,500 per patient per annum.”
Although Canopy’s patent was issued recently, it is the latest offspring of a family of patents covering THC and CBD extraction that dates back to October 2000 when an Adam Mueller filed a patent application concerning CO2 extraction with Germany’s patent office. This initial claim and its descendants passed through several corporate hands before coming to Canopy when it acquired the German company C3 (Cannabinoid Compound Company) in 2019. In the intervening 20 years, CO2 extraction has become the industry standard, employed in some form by most every company doing cannabis extraction. If Canopy’s claim is found broad enough to cover any minor discrepancies in method, it could conceivably have grounds to sue nearly any competitor for infringement.
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