SEOUL, South Korea, June 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Hugel Inc, a global total medical aesthetics company, announced that the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) for its U.S. International Trade Commission(ITC) investigation issued an initial determination on June 10^th (local time) finding that "there is no violation of Section 337" based on Medytox's allegation of unfair practices concerning the importation of certain botulinum neurotoxin(BTX) products into the United States (Inv. No. 337-TA-1313).

The ITC Administrative Law Judge(ALJ) found the evidence did not support Medytox's claim of strain theft and conversion. The final determination is scheduled to be issued in October.

History of the case: In March 2022, Medytox filed a complaint with the ITC requesting an investigation against Hugel and Hugel America, Inc, and Croma-Pharma GmbH. After Medytox verified the evidence submitted by Hugel through the discovery phase, Medytox withdrew the claim for misappropriation of trade secrets regarding the botulinum strain in September and October of 2023 and then withdrew the claims on trade secrets misappropriation of manufacturing processes for botulinum toxin in January 2024.

A Hugel official stated, "Hugel will continue to vigorously defend itself in the ITC investigation until the final determination."