Posted by Michael Wonder on 04 May 2017
Another small victory for Australian Government in its pursuit of damages for PBS over-payments during interlocutory injunction period
4 May 2017 - The Australian Government has had another small victory in the most recent interlocutory decision in the clopidogrel damages enquiry, which is likely to be the test case for its claims for reimbursement of PBS “over-payments” for the patentee’s listed pharmaceutical products during the period of an interlocutory injunction restraining generic entry (and consequent price drops), where the patent was ultimately revoked.
The decision ( Commonwealth of Australia v Sanofi (formerly Sanofi-Aventis) [2017] FCA 382 (19 April 2017)) related to a confined issue of contractual interpretation regarding terms of the settlement agreement between the patentee Sanofi and the alleged infringer Apotex. Apotex was the generic party which had been specifically restrained by the interlocutory injunction and which ultimately revoked the asserted patent on an appeal to the Full Federal Court some two years later.
