Healthcare

The ACCC has refused to authorise a patent settlement and license agreement between Bristol-Myers Squibb unit Celgene and two generic drug makers who sued to invalidate the patents for its blockbuster cancer drug Revlimid, saying it could distort competition between generic drug makers.

The Full Court has upheld two judgments that shortened patent term extensions granted to Merck Sharpe & Dohme and Ono Pharmaceuticals, finding the extension regime cannot be construed as achieving a "commercial outcome for a patentee".

A judge has slammed Novartis for putting forward four "overlapping" experts in a dispute with Pharmacor over patents for its MS drug Gilenya and thrown three of those experts out of an upcoming joint conferral, known as a "hot tub".

The High Court has found that Novartis unit Sandoz infringed Danish drug company Lundbeck's patent for its blockbuster antidepressant Lexapro, but has overturned a ruling that found the generic drug maker owes $26.3 million in damages.

Bayer says the patents office was wrong to quash an extension for its patent covering an oral contraceptive on the grounds that its application should have been based on a drug with an earlier approval date.

Settlement talks in a class action brought by Shine Lawyers against Astora Women's Health on behalf of women injured by allegedly defective pelvic mesh products are "well advanced", while mediation in two similar actions is ongoing, a court has heard.

The Northern Territory government has hit back at a class action over allegedly underresourced and discriminatory healthcare services in the Indigenous community of Wadeye, saying it cannot be sued over its funding decisions.

A judge has found Pfizer's patent for its post-operative injectable painkiller Dynastat is valid and that Australian drug maker Juno Pharmaceuticals infringed the patent by selling generic versions of the drug in Australia.

The ACCC got what it wanted when IVF providers Virtus Health and Healius terminated a proposed $45 million merger, but it wasn't a win, a judge has said in mostly denying the regulator's bid to recover the costs of its court challenge to the deal.

Bristol-Myers Squibb unit Celgene has dropped a lawsuit accusing Indian generics company Dr Reddy's Laboraties of threatening to infringe its patent for Revlimid with the planned launch of a generic version of the blockbuster cancer drug in Australia.