Teva Announces Settlement of GSK Lamictal Lawsuit

Israeli generics major Teva has announced that it has settled its legal dispute with UK drug major GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) over blockbuster central nervous system drug Lamictal. The terms of the settlement allow Teva to distribute a generic version of lamotrigine chewable tablets at the 5 mg and 25 mg dosages in the US, under an exclusive royalty-bearing license from GSK until a date not later than June 2005. The settlement's financial terms were not disclosed.

Further, Teva has also gained the exclusive right to manufacture and sell its own generic version of lamotrigine tablets at the 25mg, 100 mg, 150 mg, and 200 mg doses in the US, with a launch expected in 2008.

Sales of the chewable version of Lamictal, a treatment for bipolar disorder and epilepsy, amounted to some US$47mn in 2004, with revenue on the pill version totalling US$825mn. GSK claimed in its 2004 results that global sales of Lamictal increased by a third last year.