Alcon and Allergan settle patent dispute

Allergan has agreed to drop a patent infringement lawsuit against Alcon, after the firms settled out of court.

The firm accused Alcon of infringing patents with two of its products. Its first suit claimed that the proposed ophthalmic solution brimonidine tartrate (0.15 per cent) infringed on two patents. The second said that Alcon’s Vigamox infringed two patents on self-preserved antibiotic products.

Under the settlement, Alcon will have co-exclusive licence for its brimonidine tartrate solution, giving the company permission to introduce the product in three years time or earlier.

“We are pleased with the settlement because it resolves both lawsuits with prejudice and provides us with co-exclusive marketing rights to a brimonidine 0.15 per cent product at least a decade before the expiration of Allergan’s patents,” said Cary Rayment, president and CEO of Alcon.

The company will be allowed to market the treatment before September 30th 1999 if users of Alphagan 0.15 per cent are moved to other brimondine products made by Allergan. Alcon said it would pay royalties to the firm once its own solution begins marketing.

Alcon generated worldwide sales of $4.4 billion (?2.53 billion) in 2005.

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