Barr and BI call a truce in patent litigation

Boehringer Ingelheim and Barr Laboratories have called a truce in their litigation over the former’s restless leg drug Mirapex (pramipexole) and clotbuster Aggrenox (extended release dipyridamole/aspirin), giving the generics firm a green light to market its copycat versions ahead of the products’ patent expirations.

Specifically, Barr will now be able to launch generic Mirapex no later than July 1 2010 – 10 months prior to patent expiry – and to introduce its generic Aggrenox offering onto the market 18 months ahead of the last-to-expire patent. In both cases, at the US firm will pay Boehringer an undisclosed royalty fee upon launch.

Meanwhile, Barr has also come to a co-promotion agreement with Boehringer for Aggrenox; the German firm has agreed to train a specialty salesforce at Barr subsidiary Duramed, with the activity kicking off in March next year. Under the terms of the agreement, Boehringer will pay Duramed undisclosed royalties on net sales of Aggrenox.

For the 12 months to May this year, Mirapex had sales of $390 million while Aggrenox brought in $330 million.