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Meda Settles Patent Suit Against Cobalt Over Rhinitis Drug
The Swedish drug company Meda Pharmaceuticals has settled its U.S. patent infringement lawsuit against the Canadian drug company Cobalt Pharmaceuticals. Under the terms of the settlement, Cobalt admits infringing on Meda’s patent for its allergic and nonallergic rhinitis drug Astelin (azelastine HCl nasal spray) by filing an ANDA for a generic version of the drug in July 2007, Meda said. In exchange, Cobalt gets permission to launch a generic version of Astelin under license from Meda no earlier than Aug. 28, 2010. If it chooses to do so, Cobalt will pay 32.5 percent of its net sales of the product to Meda until Feb. 1, 2011. The deal must be approved by the FTC and the Justice Department. Meda’s U.S. patent for the drug expires Nov. 1, 2010, with pediatric exclusivity lasting until May 1, 2011. “With this settlement agreement, Meda has no further patent litigations pending in the U.S. for Astelin,” Anders Lonner, CEO of Meda, said. Cobalt did not respond to requests for comment by press time. |
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