Tanox Inc. founded by Dr. Nancy T. Chang and her husband, Tse Wen Chang, drug to prevent from peanut allergies. But the drug in a decade-long disputes with charges of stolen trade secrets and secret deals. The fight may delay the drug's introduction, and the company may receive only a small share of the financial benefits. The Houston based company is part of partnership with two bigger drug companies, Genentech and Novartis. It has involved in lawsuits and arbitration with its partners and its own lawyer. In October, 2002 arbitrators rules that Tanox, which had been testing the peanut allergy drug by itself, could no longer proceed without its partners. The three companies have to decide whether to continue testing the Tanox drug, called TNX-901, or a similar drug, Xolair, which is originally developed by Genentech for the treatment of asthma. Patients in clinical trial for peanut allergy can continue to receive TNX-901 only until July.
Both Chang and her husband grew up in Taiwan, received doctorates from Harvard, held high research posts at Centocor, and joined the faculty at Baylor Medical School in Houston in 1986. In that year, the couple now divorced started Tanox in their garage.
In 1993, Tanox filed a suit against Genentech for stealing its idea. The case was later settled. Genentech agreed to pay 16 million to Tanox initially and more later. Tanox decided to develop a drug for peanut allergy. It was sued by Genentech and Novartis but lost. But Tanox lost the arbitration noted earlier forcing Tanox not to work on TNX-901. In the dispute with its own lawyers, an arbitration panel ordered Tanox to pay 3.5 million to lawyers, plus 33.3 percent to 40 percent of future payments from Genentech, plus 10 percent of royalties Tanox receives from sales of Xolair, Two courts have upheld the arbitration rulings. (Summary of an article by Andrew Pollack, The New York Times, Mar. 13, 2003).