AstraZeneca announced that a US District Court Judge dismissed numerous class action lawsuits against AstraZeneca and Barr Laboratories and upheld a 1993 distribution agreement that gave Barr non-exclusive rights to distribute a non-branded, lower cost version of Nolvadex (tamoxifen citrate).
On May 13, Judge I. Leo Glasser, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, granted AstraZeneca and Barr's motion to dismiss all counts of the plaintiffs' consolidated complaint. Judge Glasser specifically held that AstraZeneca and Barr had not engaged in any anti-competitive conduct or that the settlement was executed in bad faith. The Judge further noted that the actions complained of by the plaintiffs were simply the right of the patent holder to enforce its legal rights. In addition, the Judge recognized that no generic manufacturer ever obtained FDA approval to bring a generic form of Nolvadex to market since the three generic manufacturers who challenged the patent failed to prove in court that the patent was invalid.