Savient, Barr settle patent litigation; Barr gets rights to birth control pill Mircette for $13.75 million

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Dec. 2 - Savient Pharmaceuticals, Inc. said it has settled its ongoing patent litigation over the generic version of birth control pill Mircette with Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Organon USA Inc. and Organon (Ireland) Ltd. business units of Akzo Nobel NV, with Barr acquiring the rights to Mircette in exchange for $13.75 million.

Under terms of the transaction, Barr, which markets the generic under the trade name Kariva, will acquire the exclusive rights to Organon's Mircette oral contraceptive product. In settlement of the patent suit and as prepaid royalties on sales in the United States of Mircette and Kariva, Barr paid Savient $13.75 million, which yields Savient about $10.9 million net of pass-through revenue-sharing to the inventor from whom Savient acquired the patents covering Mircette, according to a company news release.

Mircette is indicated for the prevention of pregnancy in women who elect to use oral contraceptives as a method of contraception. Mircette is available in a 28-tablet regimen that represents a combination of desogestrel/ethinyl estradiol and ethinyl estradiol.

Savient, based in New Brunswick, N.J, is a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing, manufacturing and marketing novel therapeutic products. The company's lead product development candidate, Puricase, for the treatment of refractory gout has reported positive phase 1 and 2 clinical data.

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