Sanofi settles Allegra, Nasacort patent suits with Teva, Barr

Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc and Barr Laboratories Inc signed an agreement on Wednesday with Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc, Sanofi-Aventis and Albany Molecular Research Inc to settle patent infringement litigation over Teva's and Barr's US generic versions of Aventis Pharmaceuticals' allergy medicine, Allegra.

Sanofi said in a statement that its American unit, Sanofi-Aventis US, has agreed to grant Barr and Teva licence to certain patent rights, allowing them to sell generic versions of Allegra in the US in exchange for payment of royalties, part of them are to be retroactively applied to past sales. Teva and Barr will each pay Sanofi-Aventis about $30 million plus an undisclosed royalty on future sales of the products.

"There will be some royalties for what has been sold in the past and there will be royalties for what will be sold in the future," a company's spokesman said. He didn't elaborate on how much Sanofi-Aventis expects to get in royalties from Barr and Teva.

The agreement is subject to review by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Teva has agreed to buy Montvale, New Jersey-based Barr - which also reached agreements with Sanofi regarding generics for allergy drug Nasacort - in an $8 billion deal that will merge the two generic drug giants. (See: No1 generic drugs maker Teva acquires rival Barr Pharma for $7.46 billion)

The licence for Nasacort authorises production and marketing of a generic version for the US market not earlier than June 2011 and at the latest by December 2013, while the licence for Allegra authorises production and marketing of a generic version for the US market not earlier than November 2009. In 2007, US sales of Nasacort and Allegra amounted to $301 million and $276 million, respectively.