IP Australia handed a win Thursday to a company challenging a Bayer animal drug patent, but gave Bayer an additional two months to address its concerns about the patent application’s deficiencies.
The Australian Patent Office has shot down a patent application covering throat lozenges by consumer goods giant Reckitt-Benckiser on a challenge by rival Sanofi-Aventis.
Drug giants GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis have conceded part of the ACCC’s case that packaging on their Voltaren Osteo Gel breached the Australian Consumer Law, but said the label was changed almost a year ago.
The judge who sided with Medibank in the ACCC’s failed case last year paid little attention to one of the consumer regulator’s central arguments against the private health insurer, a court heard Monday.
In the first criminal prosecution of its kind against an Australian corporation, prosecutors on Thursday charged a Victorian health care company and its managing director over an alleged wheelchair cartel.
Medibank CEO Craig Drummond said Monday the private health insurer was “disappointed” that the ACCC was appealing its loss in a consumer case accusing the insurer of unconscionable conduct in advising members about coverage limits.
A case brought by Australia’s consumer regulator against health insurer NIB Health Funds for allegedly violating consumer protection laws by making changes to its plans without first notifying members will head to trial June 6.
The judge overseeing a case brought by Reckitt Benckiser against Aft Pharmaceuticals over its allegedly deceptive painkiller ads has temporarily blocked Aft from releasing ads that claim its Maxigesic painkiller is stronger than other paracetamol-ibuprofen combination drugs.
Australian Unity will fork over $620,000 in compensation to policy holders after an investigation by the consumer regulator found the health insurer had moved the goal posts by altering dental benefits in annual policies halfway through the year.
Aft Pharmaceuticals has denied claims brought by consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser that ads for Aft’s over-the-counter painkiller Maxigesic are misleading and causing harm to Reckitt’s brand.