Danish government: ‘Sue pharma firms’
pharmafile | January 23, 2014 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Actavis, Danish, Denmark, Lundbeck, celexa
A senior figure in Denmark’s government has said that local authorities should take legal action against pharma firms which put up barriers to competition.
In an interview with the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, Danish health minister Astrid Krag said: “I think the public health system should raise a compensation claim if they can lift the burden of proof. It is up to those regions, which have had the cost of reimbursement to decide whether to pursue the matter.”
However, there have so far been no cases of Danish local authorities, which have responsibility for health services, suing drug makers.
“It has been a theoretical discussion in Jyllands-Posten of whether such an action would be feasible,” a Lundbeck spokesperson told Pharmafocus. “Astrid Krag said that of course innovative companies should be allowed to enforce their patents, which we of course fully agree with.”
Lundbeck is currently locked in a battle with US generics specialist Actavis: the country’s Supreme Court has overturned a District Court injunction from 2011 which stopped Actavis copying Lundbeck’s antidepressant Cipralex (escitalopram).
“As for our case against Actavis it is – sadly – not unlike other cases of generic companies violating our patents and we have tried to enforce our patent,” the Lundbeck spokesperson continued. “They are on the market with an infringing product. The court case about the infringement is ongoing, a verdict is probably a year or two away.”
Lundbeck is expected to demand compensation from the US pharma company for violation of patent.
Last year Lundbeck was hit with a big fine by the European Commission over allegations that it set up ‘pay for delay’ deals to block competitors from releasing generic versions of another of its antidepressants, Celexa (citalopram).
Lundbeck took the biggest hit, with a €93.8 million fine but Merck KGaA (€21.4 million), Ranbaxy, Arrow, Resolution Chemicals, Xellia Pharmaceuticals, Alpharma and A.L. Industrier were also punished, to the collective tune of €146 million.
Celexa lost its patent in 2002 but the European Commission, which regulates competition in the EU, found that Lundbeck paid the firms and their generic subsidiaries to delay the launch of copycat versions of the drug.
Adam Hill
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