Biohaven Ltd. and Yale University were awarded a combined $4 million in damages by a U.S. District Court jury in Delaware after finding that RA Capital Management GP, LLC and Avilar Therapeutics, Inc. misappropriated trade secrets related to Yale’s MODA platform.
The jury awarded $2 million to Yale for breach of contract and $1 million each to Yale and Biohaven for trade secret misappropriation. The judgment, entered Monday by Judge Jennifer L. Hall, stems from a dispute over Yale’s targeted protein degradation technology, developed by Dr. David Spiegel, which Biohaven licensed to advance its drug development pipeline.
The case centered on a 2019 confidentiality agreement between RA Capital and Yale, which the jury found RA Capital breached. According to court filings, Biohaven and Yale alleged that RA Capital and Avilar used confidential technical information shared during negotiations to build a competing program. The MODA platform, presented at Yale’s Lifesciences Pitchfest in 2018, enables the binding and elimination of disease-causing extracellular proteins.
The dispute originated in April 2019 when RA Capital entered a confidentiality agreement with Yale. Negotiations between Dr. Spiegel and RA Capital concluded without an agreement in August 2019. Biohaven and Yale filed suit in March 2023, and a jury trial began on July 20, concluding with a verdict on July 24.
The judgment remains subject to post-trial motions, and the court has not yet issued a final ruling on those filings.
