Category: News

19 June 2026 — Reflection Biotechnologies (ReflectionBio®) today announced the successful maintenance of its European Patent No. 3662066 (Application No. EP18842071.5) following opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office (EPO). Despite challenges brought by two opponents, ReflectionBio—represented by Fish & Richardson—secured amended claims that preserve patent protection for its AAV gene therapy vector for treating Bietti Crystalline Dystrophy (BCD).

This is more than a legal victory.

ReflectionBio was founded by Richard Yang, a patient suffering from BCD, a rare blinding disease. As the first inventor, he conceptualized and drove this foundational research on AAV-mediated gene therapy for BCD while losing his sight. This patient-driven 0-to-1 breakthrough yielded the world’s first proof-of-concept results, bringing hope to BCD patients and fostering industry confidence in BCD gene therapy.

This successful defense of the patent represents more than a legal victory: it is about protecting the intellectual contribution a rare disease patient created to pave the way for a treatment for their own disease. This contribution stands as powerful proof that rare disease patients do not have to wait passively for treatments — we can champion the research, invent the solutions, and play a proactive role in orphan drug development.

We are grateful to our legal team at Fish & Richardson for their outstanding work throughout this process.

Note: The official European Patent Register entries for the opposition proceedings and result can be found here:  https://register.epo.org/application?number=EP18842071&lng=en&tab=doclist

As is standard in EPO proceedings, this first-instance decision may be subject to appeal.

(October 2018) Richard Yang, Founder & CEO of ReflectionBio and a rare disease patient, was invited to join the newly formed “Orphan Drug Development Guidebook” Task Force of International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC). The “Orphan Drug Development Guidebook” project aims at creating a simple guidebook for academic and industrial drug developers describing the available tools and initiatives specific for rare disease development and how to best use them.

“I am proud to be working with a group of international experts in the rare disease and orphan drug development field and sharing our experience. I will provide my perspective as an orphan drug developer and as a rare disease patient to facilitate the goal of the Task Force. I trust the collective efforts of the Task Force will benefit the rare disease patient community.” Richard Yang commented.

About the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC): IRDiRC unites national and international governmental and non-profit funding bodies, companies (including pharmaceutical and biotech enterprises), umbrella patient advocacy organizations, and scientific researchers to promote international collaboration and advance rare diseases research worldwide. Importantly, the coverage of the Consortium is global and involves stakeholders from Africa, Asia, Australia, North America, and Europe.