Shire, Sandoz Settle Attention Deficit Treatment Litigation
October 13 2009 - 2:17PM
Dow Jones News
Shire PLC (SHP.LN) said Wednesday it settled litigation with
Swiss generics maker Sandoz over production of a generic version
the U.K. pharmaceutical company drug Adderall XR, a treatment for
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.
Sandoz, a unit of Novartis AG (NVS), gets a license to market
the generic version of Adderall in the United States as soon as it
gets a green light from the Food and Drug Administration, and will
pay Shire royalties from those sales, Shire said in a
statement.
Sandoz will not receive any payments from Shire under the
agreement.
So far, Barr Pharmaceuticals, a unit of Israeli generics company
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA.TV), and Impax
Laboratories Inc. (IPXL) are the only authorized generic suppliers
of Adderall, according to Shire's statement.
Adderall XR began to see generic competition in April this year,
but Shire is hoping to keep its ADHD franchise stable with other
treatments for the disease, the already marketed Vyvanse and the
recently approved Intuniv.
Analysts see sales potential of more than $2 billion for
Vyvanse, helping cover the gap in sales from the Adderall patent
expiry.
In 2008, Shire generated sales of $1.1 billion from Adderall but
that's expected to fall to $579 million this year due to the launch
of generic versions and the newer drug Vyvanse, according to
Citigroup analysts.
The analysts see Vyvanse sales of $535 million in 2009 after
$319 million in 2008.
Novartis confirmed the agreement between Sandoz and Shire but
wasn't immediately available to provide further detail.
Company Web Site: http://www.shire.com, www.novartis.com,
www.sandoz.com
-By Julia Mengewein, Dow Jones Newswires; +41 43 443 80 45;
julia.mengewein@dowjones.com