Teva and Savient in Partial Novo Nordisk Settlement

Israeli generics major Teva and US-based biotechnology firm Savient have reached a partial agreement on their intellectual property disputes over human growth hormone with Danish producer Novo Nordisk.

All three parties have granted each other cross licences for any patents on the hormone's active pharmaceutical ingredient. In exchange, Teva and Savient have dropped claims for legal fees and damages for wrongful injunction.

However, Israeli media sources also state that the resolution does not affect a further, unspecified part of the dispute, and an interference proceeding in the US Patent and Trademark Office will also continue. Sales of human growth hormone in the US totalled some US$500mn in 2004.