Abbott and Teva Settle Patent Litigation Over Biaxin XL

          by David Harper

Abbott Laboratories and Teva Pharmaceuticals have settled their Biaxin XL patent infringement litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  Biaxin XL is an extended release formulation of clarithromycin used to treat bacterial respiratory infections, with over $1 billion in annual sales.

The parties filed a stipulation of dismissal with the District Court on July 31.  Terms of the settlement were not available in published court documents.  However, a spokeman for Teva reportedly stated that pursuant to the settlement agreement, Teva would not sell its generic version of Biaxin XL "at this time," suggesting that Teva plans to do so in the future.

In June, the Federal Circuit vacated the district court's preliminary injunction order and soon after, Teva began selling generic Biaxin XL.  Then, the district court ruled that its preliminary injunction order would remain binding on Teva unless and until a mandate issued from the Federal Circuit vacating the preliminary injunction.  Teva then announced that it would voluntarily pull all of its generic Biaxin XL off the market.  Later, Abbott filed a motion to compel the recall of all of Teva's generic Biaxin XL that Teva had already sold to its customers.

The settlement agreement does not end all disputes over generic Biaxin XL, as litigation against Andrx Pharmaceuticals and Roxane Laboratories remains pending.

Comments

[karen arias]

am a pharmacy technician in florida, just wondering why was biaxin xl pulled off the market

thanks