Lilly sues partner Valeant over Permax US liability costs
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Lillyis suing its partner, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, for breach of contract, alleging that Valeant failed to share the cost of product liability claims arising from the withdrawal of the Parkinson's disease treatment pergolide (Permax). The lawsuit was filed on December 24th in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. Permax was originally developed by Lilly, but the US rights were later granted to Valeant; in the suit Lilly claims that the agreement covered sharing costs of product liability claims "alleged to have been caused by use of Permax sold in the US". In 2007, the product was voluntarily pulled from the market because of the FDA’s concern over the history of a high rate of cardiac valvular disease (heart valve regurgitation; Scrip Online, March 30th, 2007). Valeant claimed the cost-sharing obligations would take effect "only if the product liability claim at issue was caused by Valeant’s misconduct", according to the suit, an interpretation that Lilly disputes. Lilly states in the suit that "Valeant breached the Lilly/Valeant agreement by failing to share costs, as required by the Lilly/Valeant agreement, associated with a product liability claim".