SangStat has announced that it will continue to offer its cyclosporine therapy despite lawsuits against the company by Novartis, which sells the competing cyclosporine Neoral.
"This statement is in response to Novartis filing a patent infringement lawsuit against SangStat in the United Kingdom. The suit mirrors the lawsuit previously filed by Novartis against SangStat in the United States and appears to be the Swiss pharmaceutical company's latest attempt to restrain competition," SangStat said on July 22 at www.sangstat.com/press/press_release99-20.html.
Novartis, whose homepage is at www.novartis.com, had not posted any statements regarding the new suit as of late July. On March 1, Transplant News Network reported that Novartis had filed two lawsuits on February 11 over SangStat's oral cyclosporine, SangCya. One suit was a patent infringement suit against SangStat; the other was directed at the Food and Drug Administration. SangStat filed a countersuit in the U.S. action alleging that Novartis had violated antitrust laws in an effort to keep SangCya from being marketed.
SangCya was approved as a substitute for Neoral in the United States in October 1998 and in the United Kingdom in January 1999. According to SangStat, SangCya costs about 28% less than Neoral, which represents an annual savings of about $1,600 per patient.
In May, SangStat introduced the SangCya Price Guarantee Program, which keeps the price of SangCya the same for three years for patients who pay for their own medication (www.sangstat.com/press/press_release99-18.html).
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