PRINCETON, N.J., December 10, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Novo Nordisk Inc. today announced the company has settled a lawsuit against Pfizer claiming that Pfizer's product Exubera(R) infringed patents owned by Novo Nordisk. The patents cover inhaled insulin treatment for diabetes.
The lawsuit was originally filed in August 2006 in United States Federal Court in the Southern District of New York.
The five patents involved in the suit were U.S. Patent Numbers 5,884,620; 7028,686; 6167,880; 5,941,240 and 5,672,581.
In the patent suit, a federal judge denied a Novo Nordisk bid to barr Pfizer's sales of Exubera in December 2006, tossing a request for an injunction. U.S. District Judge Leonard B. Sands held that the public interest weighed in favor of denying the injunction, noting Pfizer's argument that Exubera offered diabetics who were not coping well with their disease or were afraid to inject insulin, a new, needle-free way to deal with their disease.
In October, however, Pfizer announced that it would no longer be making the diabetes treatment available because it has failed to gain the acceptance of patients and physicians.
That announcement came as a surprise to Pfizer's partner Nektar Therapeutics, which immediately responded by saying it had not been pleased with Pfizer's performance in marketing the diabetes drug.
Pfizer later agreed to pay Nektar Therapeutics $135 million in order to bow out of a marketing agreement the two companies had over Exubera. As part of that deal, Pfizer also agreed to hand over any remaining rights to the inhaled insulin treatment, including an number of regulatory filings and applications and the continuation of ongoing Exubera clinical trials, in the event that Nektar found another partner to market the diabetes drug.
That agreement also resolved contractual issues related to the development of an updated version of Exubera, which the companies said was currently in Phase 1 clinical development.
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