PARIS, March 31 (Reuters) - Sanofi-Aventis (SASY.PA) lost a bid to dismiss a U.S. lawsuit launched by an investor for allegedly withholding information on its flopped anti-obesity pill Acomplia, which was once seen as a potential blockbuster.
The French drugmaker said in a statement on Thursday it would "continue to defend its interests" after a U.S. court denied its motion to dismiss the suit against Sanofi itself as well as former Chief Executive Gerard Le Fur and its head of pharmaceutical operations Hanspeter Spek.
U.S. District Judge George Daniels, in a decision handed down on Wednesday, did agree to dismiss the complaint against five other former Sanofi executives.
Rimonabant, which was branded in Europe as Acomplia and in the United States as Zimulti, never made it to the world's biggest drug market and was withdrawn in Europe.
Its failure led to the departure of Le Fur, who in his previous role as research and development head had overseen the drug's development.
The investor, Carrie Smith, originally filed the lawsuit seeking class action status in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan in 2008.
FAILURE TO DISCLOSE
Smith alleged that she and other investors suffered damages from Sanofi's failure to disclose key data that questioned the drug's safety.
While the case was dimissed in 2009, the court a year later granted a motion by the plaintiffs to reconsider, reopening the case.
The suit's other defendants included former executives Chairman Jean-Francois Dehecq, R&D head Marc Cluzel and Finance Director Jean-Claude Leroy, U.S. Chief Medical Officer Douglas Greene and Sanofi's current Chief Medical Officer Jean-Pierre Lehner.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Sanofi loses bid to ditch U.S. suit on failed drug | Reuters
via reuters.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment