US-based pharmaceutical major Pfizer has reached a $2.15-billion settlement with Sun Pharmaceutical and Teva Pharmaceuticals under an ongoing litigation pending in the US district court regarding Sun Pharma subsidiary?s generic Pantoprazole.
Sun Pharma will pay a lum-sum amount of $550 million as part of the settlement whereas Teva will pay $800 million in 2013 and the remaining $800 million by October 2014. With this settlement in place, Wyeth (now a division of Pfizer) and Altana Pharma, (now known as Takeda) have dismissed all their claims.
?We are pleased with today?s settlement, which recognises the validity and value of the innovation that led to Protonix,? said Amy W Schulman, executive vice president and general counsel of Pfizer. ?Protecting intellectual property is vital as we develop new medicines that save and enhance patients? lives,? she added.
In 2005, Wyeth and Altana had filed a patent infringement suit against Sun Pharma after the latter filed its abbreviated new drug application for Pantoprazole. Sun Pharma launched its generic in the US on January 30, 2008. In April 2010, a jury had determined that Altana?s patent is not invalid. On June 3, this year, the court began a jury trial to assess the amount of past damages that Sun Pharma owed for infringing Altana?s now expired patent. Sun Pharma will be able to continue to sell its generic Pantoprazole in the US.
Both the firms have admitted that their sales of generic Pantoprazole infringed the patent that was held valid by the court. The settlement has come after nearly 10 years of legal battle in which Pfizer and Nycomed (now part of Takeda) sought to enforce the patent for its blockbuster acid reflux medicine. Pfizer and Takeda will divide the proceeds of the settlement with Pfizer receiving 64% of the total $2.15 billion.
Pantoprazole is the active ingredient in Protonix, a drug used for reducing acidity.