Mumbai-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has prohibited Biofrontera AG and certain units of the company from using its subsidiary's trade secret information.

Dusa Pharmaceuticals Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceutical, had filed a lawsuit against the German biotech's units, alleging that the Biofrontera companies infringed on its patents for its topical medication, Levulan Kerastick, and the specific wavelength light emitter, Blu-U Blue Light, used in photodynamic therapy.

Photodynamic therapy treats minimally to moderately thick actinic keratosis of the face or scalp. Actinic keratosis is a common skin condition caused by sun damage and characterized by scaly patches on the skin that could progress to skin cancer.

The court issued a preliminary injunction order, finding that "Biofrontera by its own admission is in possession of at least 600 DUSA documents obtained from 20+ employees that have left DUSA for Biofrontera in recent years," "that these documents contain confidential and proprietary information," and "that Biofrontera has competed against DUSA unfairly exploiting know-how that took DUSA years to develop," the Sun Pharma unit said in a news release.

Biofrontera cannot use any of DUSA Pharmaceuticals' confidential and proprietary trade secret information to sell and market its own photodynamic therapy products, Amleuz and BF-RhodoLED, until the federal court makes a final determination in the legal case.

The court stated that "at this early stage, it would appear that DUSA has a reasonable prospect of success on the merits," DUSA Pharmaceuticals said.