AZ accepts $92.5m to settle respiratory dispute
pharmafile | February 18, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing | AZ, AstraZeneca, MedImmune, PDL BioPharma, Synagis, patent dispute, respiratory
AstraZeneca’s MedImmune subsidiary is to receive $92.5 million as part of a legal settlement involving its respiratory drug Synagis.
PDL BioPharma paid MedImmune $65 million on February 15 and will pay another $27.5 million by February 10 next year.
The money will resolve all legal disputes between the companies, including those relating to Synagis and PDL’s intellectual property platform, known as the Queen et al. patents – which will expire in December 2014.
As part of this deal, MedImmune has also agreed not to challenge, or assist other parties in challenging, these patents.
Nevada-based PDL specialises in the humanisation of monoclonal antibodies, the ones used in targeted treatments for cancer and immunologic diseases.
It licenses the technology to produce humanised antibodies to pharma and biotech companies in exchange for royalty payments.
There are various strands to this dispute, but last month a US court found MedImmune did not breach its obligations under a licence agreement with PDL by failing to pay royalties on sales of Synagis by its ex-US distributor, Abbott.
MedImmune has paid PDL more than $280 million in royalties since 1998.
But it has not paid them on sales of Synagis – indicated for the prevention of serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – that occurred after September 2009.
And no further payments will be owed by MedImmune “under its license to the Queen et al. patents as a result of past or future Synagis sales”, the companies said in a statement.
Despite the new settlement, things have not gone as AstraZeneca would have hoped in another crucial area.
MedImmune had developed a drug called motavizumab as an update to Synagis and it had been submitted for FDA approval as a prophylaxis treatment for serious RSV.
But last December, AstraZeneca withdrew the US licence application after the FDA called for more clinical trials. The move will cost the company $445 million.
In 2010, PDL’s largest royalties were from sales of Avastin and Herceptin, with those of Avastin and Lucentis increasing more than 35% last year, compared with 2009, PDL says.
Adam Hill
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