NEW YORK (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG sued Amgen Inc on Thursday, accusing the U.S. biotechnology company of trying to back out of agreements to jointly develop and market Aimovig for the prevention of migraines, and keep the profits for itself.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG is seen at its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland January 25, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Novartis said it has spent several hundred million dollars on Aimovig since August 2015, when it began collaborating with Amgen, which previously controlled all rights to the treatment.
It said Amgen’s April 2 notice to end the collaboration should be deemed void because it was based on an incorrect pretext that Novartis breached the agreements when an affiliate worked with another company on a possible Aimovig rival.
Novartis called Aimovig a “runaway success,” with about 210,000 patients using the drug in the United States and another 20,000 patients elsewhere.
Aimovig won U.S. and European Union regulatory approvals last year.
The lawsuit seeks to enforce the companies’ collaboration agreements, and declare Amgen’s purported termination void.
Amgen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Roughly 39 million Americans suffer from migraine headaches, according to the Migraine Research Foundation.
Global drug sales to treat migraines could total $8.7 billion by 2026, according to the GlobalData analytics firm.
Aimovig belongs to a new class of migraine prevention drugs and competes with Emgality from Eli Lilly and Co and Ajovy from Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Bill Berkrot
