San Nuo Biological's overseas patent dispute appeal was rejected, and related products were subject to a temporary injunction.

Beijing News Report (Reporter Liu Xu): On April 1, San Nuo Biological Sensing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “San Nuo Bio”) released an announcement. On March 30, the company received the appeal result regarding the temporary injunction related to European Patent EP4344633. It was learned that the Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) dismissed the company’s and A Menarini Diagnostics S.r.l.’s (hereinafter referred to as “Menarini”) appeal requests and upheld the temporary injunction decision issued by the Hague UPC Division against the GlucoMen iCan CGM product.

The product accused of infringement by San Nuo Bio this time is the GlucoMen iCan CGM, which is mainly used for blood glucose monitoring in diabetic patients. The patent involved is EP4344633, which records a sensor component with a specific structure and its supporting equipment. On July 4, 2025, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Abbott”) filed, at the Hague UPC Division, a request for a temporary injunction against its patent EP4344633, targeting San Nuo Bio and Menarini. Abbott believes that the GlucoMen iCan CGM product manufactured by San Nuo Bio infringes its patent rights.

On October 17, 2025, the Hague UPC Division issued a preliminary judgment approving Abbott’s application for a temporary injunction regarding EP4344633. After the judgment takes effect, both parties may appeal the temporary injunction judgment within 15 days. On October 31, 2025, San Nuo Bio filed an appeal requesting the UPC Court of Appeal to dismiss Abbott’s application for a temporary injunction regarding the EP4344633 patent and to revoke the first-instance judgment.

On February 9, 2026, the UPC Court of Appeal held a hearing on the appeal application for the temporary injunction judgment relating to EP4344633. The UPC Court of Appeal held that there is a possibility that the product involved infringes. At the same time, since the product involved has entered part of the European market, if a temporary injunction is not taken, it may cause difficult-to-calculate damage to Abbott. On this basis, it decided to maintain the temporary injunction. However, the UPC Court of Appeal also expressly clarified that this temporary injunction does not apply to San Nuo Bio’s already marketed product “Sinocare iCan i3”.

The UPC Court of Appeal made its decision on March 30, 2026, local time, dismissing the appeal requests of San Nuo Bio and Menarini, and upholding the first-instance court’s temporary injunction judgment, which prohibits San Nuo Bio and Menarini from manufacturing, selling, importing, or using GlucoMen iCan CGM products within the UPC jurisdiction. In addition, San Nuo Bio is required to bear the relevant costs of this appeal procedure and pay Abbott an interim fee of 200,000 euros within 14 days.

Menarini is an Italian company, and its main business areas include the R&D, production, and sales of medical diagnostic products. In November 2024, San Nuo Bio signed a “Distribution Agreement” with Menarini. Under the agreement, the two parties reached cooperation regarding the exclusive distribution of customized models of San Nuo Bio’s first- and second-generation continuous glucose monitoring system (iCan CGM System) in more than 20 European countries and regions in a joint-brand manner.

In addition, on November 17, 2025, Abbott filed a principal lawsuit against EP4344633 at the Hague UPC Division. To date, this case has not yet been heard.

San Nuo Bio stated that this judgment is the outcome of the review of the temporary injunction and is not a final judgment on the merits of the case. Since the principal lawsuit has not yet been heard, the final outcome remains uncertain, and the specific impact on the company’s profit in subsequent periods is also uncertain. The GlucoMen iCan CGM product involved is still in the development stage in the European market. In 2025, the proportion of sales revenue of this product within the UPC jurisdiction in the company’s overall operating revenue does not exceed 0.5%. It is expected that from the date of this judgment to the judgment in the principal lawsuit, the sales revenue affected in the UPC jurisdiction will not have a material impact on the company’s production and operations or the overall sales of its products.

This is not the first time San Nuo Bio has been involved in a patent dispute. On June 4, 2024, Roche Diabetes Care, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Roche”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware against San Nuo Bio’s subsidiary Trividia Health, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “THI”). Roche argued that TRUE METRIX and TRUE METRIX PRO test strips sold by THI infringed its two U.S. patents, Nos. 7727467 and 7892849. THI denied any infringement and filed a counterclaim that Roche’s asserted patents were invalid due to prior art, and that Roche infringed THI’s No. 8128981 patent.

After considering the cost of funds and time costs, and through friendly negotiations, THI signed a cross-licensing and settlement agreement with Roche for BGM products on October 2, 2025. After the agreement becomes effective, THI obtained patent authorization from Roche (covering at least 39 U.S. patents and patent applications as well as corresponding overseas patents) for implementing THI’s products; meanwhile, Roche obtained patent authorization from THI (covering at least 2 U.S. patents and corresponding overseas patents). THI needs to pay Roche a net amount of 19 million U.S. dollars under the agreement. The related lawsuit concluded on October 17, 2025, by a “dismissal with prejudice.” The amount of impact of the above matters on San Nuo Bio’s net profit for the third quarter of 2025 is 136 million yuan.

Regarding performance, San Nuo Bio expects net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for 2025 to be 0.85 billion yuan—1.275 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 73.95%—60.92%; and expects net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses to be 45 million yuan—67.5 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 84.73%—77.09%.

As for the reasons for the significant decline in performance, San Nuo Bio stated that in 2025, the operating performance of its wholly owned subsidiary PTS did not meet expectations, and it made impairment of part of the goodwill formed from the acquisition of PTS. The total amount of goodwill impairment expected to be recognized in the current period is 130 million yuan to 170 million yuan. The patent settlement reached between the U.S. subsidiary THI and Roche includes a payment of 19 million U.S. dollars, and it is expected to affect the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company by 74.63 million yuan in 2025. Due to increased product launches for new products in CGM (continuous glucose monitoring) and BGM (point-in-time single blood glucose), the overall gross profit margin of glucose monitoring products was affected. To improve recognition of new products and consolidate and expand the market, marketing expenses increased. Non-recurring gains and losses are expected to be 38 million yuan to 42 million yuan, which is higher than in 2024.

Editor: Wang Lu

Proofreader: Mu Xiangtong

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