Simon Fitzpatrick

A court has dismissed a claim by the Australian Government for $325 million against pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb allegedly owed for excess subsidies it paid for blood-thinner Plavix as a result of an interlocutory injunction blocking a generic version of the blockbuster drug.

Noting the relevant three-year limitations provision was “quite unusal”, the judge overseeing a consumer class action against horse vaccine manufacturer Zoetis has given the class a chance to add a second applicant to the case, after it was revealed that part of the lead applicant’s claim was out of time.