ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210067
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
Barr Laboratories Inc., which is building a packaging and warehouse facility in Bedford County, has settled a patent challenge with Bayer AG over the antibiotic ciprofloxacin. The agreement calls for Bayer AG to pay Barr $24.55 million this month.
The two companies also agreed to a non-exclusive supply agreement that becomes effective next January and ends with the expiration of the patent in December 2003. It calls for Bayer either to make payments to Barr or to provide Barr with quantities of ciprofloxacin that Barr would market under a license from Bayer.
Barr said in a news statement that the annual value of the supply contract could be equal to the Bayer payment this month.
In the agreement filed last week in U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of New York, Barr acknowledged the validity of the ciprofloxacin patents worldwide.
Barr and its partner in the litigation, Rugby Laboratories Inc., have the right to begin selling the medication - used to treat bacterial infections - within six months of the patent expiration.
Barr, which makes generic drugs, challenged the validity of the Bayer AG patent last fall before the Food and Drug Administration. The company already has won the right to market Estropipate, the generic equivalent of the hormone product, Ogen.
LENGTH: Short : 35 linesby CNB