Review Centre

A US court has granted the company’s request for a summary judgement in the case in which AstraZeneca is suing Teva Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz for alleged patent infringement.

The two companies being sued had sought approval to sell generic versions of Seroquel tablets in the US before Seroquel’s patent expires in 2011.

Teva and Sandoz have already conceded infringement and the validity of AstraZeneca’s patent, but until the latest judgement by the court there was still the possibility of a long trial on the matter on inequitable conduct.

Under US patent law, a court may opt not to enforce a patent, even if it is valid, is the patentee has engaged in inequitable conduct, which can take the form of misrepresentation or omissions during the patent application process.

“We are pleased with the court’s decision to uphold our valid intellectual property. Seroquel remains an important part of our company’s portfolio benefiting patients and physicians throughout the world,” said David Brennan, chief executive officer of AstraZeneca.

Seroquel is AstraZeneca’s second biggest money earner, generating booked sales of $4bn last year.

The city Law Department agreed yesterday to pay half of a contested legal bill four City Council members incurred fighting a billboard permit.

The $10,706 invoice from attorney Hugh McGough was for his representation of council President Doug Shields and colleagues Ricky Burgess, Bruce Kraus and William Peduto. The four challenged Lamar Advertising’s now-revoked permit for an electronic billboard, which was approved to go up Downtown without public hearings or votes.

Lamar then sued them, as well as Councilman Patrick Dowd, in civil court for allegedly conspiring to nix the $2 million sign.

The Law Department had argued that since there was no council vote to hire Mr. McGough, the invoice was a personal debt of the four members.

Yesterday, Solicitor George Specter wrote to Mr. Shields saying that parts of the invoice related to defending the members against Lamar’s civil lawsuit can be paid by the city.

Mr. Shields said that covered around half of the bill.

“The other half, we’re working on,” he said.

State Sen. Jim Ferlo e-mailed council, offering to pay $1,000 of the bill and to help raise money for the rest.

Missouri regulators have rejected Attorney General Jay Nixon’s request to take further legal steps against a financially troubled St. Louis seller of prepaid funeral plans.

“Legal action … could worsen the impact on consumers,” Linda Bohrer, acting director of the state’s Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions & Professional Registration, told Nixon’s office in a letter made public Tuesday.

In cooperation with Missouri and other states, Texas insurance regulators in April seized National Prearranged Services Inc., along with two related insurance firms in Texas, and placed them in receivership.

The company’s financial meltdown has put an estimated 2,600 funeral homes in 19 states at risk of providing funerals under terms of consumers’ prepaid contracts but not being reimbursed their full value that was underwritten by National Prearranged. About 45,000 consumers are thought to be affected in Missouri and Kansas.

Bohrer told Nixon that regulators from numerous states are “making great strides in creating a plan which would offer the best possible protection to consumers and funeral homes in Missouri.

“Litigation by the attorney general’s office against insurance companies or financial institutions at this time could have a detrimental effect on the plan being developed by the special deputy receiver and insurance guaranty associations to protect existing and future assets for Missouri consumers and funeral directors,” she said.

A spokesman for Nixon disagreed.

“We are surprised and disappointed that the Department of Insurance and the Division of Finance have refused to allow the full arsenal of legal options to be used to protect Missouri businesses and consumers,” Nixon spokesman John Fougere said.

The St. Louis Cassity family controls National Prearranged and numerous affiliated businesses including Mount Washington Forever Cemetery and Funeral Home in Independence.

A legal opinion slams the land deal between Israel Salt Industries Ltd. (TASE:SALT), controlled by members of the Dankner family, and the Israel Land Administration (ILA). The opinion has just been disclosed now, five years after the deal that aroused a storm of controversy.

In October 2003, the ILA Council agreed that land leased by Salt Industries for its industrial salt production from the ILA until 2060 could be rezoned for residential use. The ILA and Salt Industries would share the proceeds.