An Irish company which developed a drug used to treat hypertension in babies and older children is being sued for allegedly terminating an agreement with a Dutch company to commercialise, market and sell the product in a number of European countries.
Piramal Critical Care BV, a Netherlands-registered company engaged in commercialising pharma and healthcare products, is seeking injunctions preventing Dublin-registered pharmaceutical developer Brepco Biopharma Ltd from ending the agreement.
The case was entered into the fast track Commercial Court list on Monday by Judge Mark Sanfey on the application of Andrew Fitzpatrick, barrister for Piramal, who said there was no objection from the defendant to the application.
Piramal seeks to restrain the defendant from terminating an October 2022 licence agreement between the parties and restraining the appointment of a replacement partner to commercialise the product. Brepco denies the claim.
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Pranay Agrawal, chief manager-finance of Piramal Critical Care Ltd, a sister company of Piramal Critical Care BV, said in an affidavit that the licence agreement provided that “commercially reasonable efforts” would be made to launch the product after relevant market authorisation was granted and, in any event, within the 12-month and 18-month periods specified in the agreement.
Agrawal said Piramal spent some €5.2 million to commercialise the product which he said “amply demonstrates” that commercially reasonable efforts were made to launch the product as expeditiously as possible.
Piramal will contend, among other things, that delays in the launch in a number of countries were outside its control and/or were due to circumstances within the control of the defendant.
While there was a termination notice in relation to Sweden in June of last year, in January this year the defendant complained the product had only been launched in Germany and the UK, that there had been no sales in Italy and that it had not been launched at all in remaining EU countries and Norway, Agrawal said.
Further correspondence ensued between the parties and, on March 4 last, Brepco served a termination notice purporting to terminate the licence agreement for specified countries, excluding the UK, Germany and Italy.
Piramal disputes the validity of the termination notice and seeks an injunction preventing the defendant from acting upon it, Agrawal said.
