Eli Lilly breaches research contract

A US federal judge has ruled that Eli Lilly breached the conditions of a contract with research partner Emisphere Technologies.

It was claimed in court that Lilly breached agreements by carrying out its own development using Emisphere’s compounds, which were under the research agreement.

Judge David Hamilton wrote in his judgement: “Lilly decided it really did not need Emisphere any further, so it decided to pursue a secret research strategy in breach of its contractual obligations to Emisphere.

“The breach of trust went to the root of the parties’ agreement and it is serious enough to support termination of the contracts.”

Emisphere has now entered into a research agreement on a similar project with Novartis and is pursuing a patent infringement claim against Lilly.

The original agreement was to develop oral forms of a hormone used to treat osteoporosis using Emisphere’s compounds to stop stomach acids neutralising medication.

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