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news.A deal that granted Teva USA the exclusive marketing rights to Barr Laboratories' generic version of Sanofi-Aventis' allergy medication Allegra, has sparked legal action against the companies from the erstwhile suppliers of the drug's active ingredient.
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Agvar Chemicals and Ranbaxy Laboratories supplied fexofenadine, the active ingredient in Allegra, to Barr during the development of the product. Barr then obtained FDA approval for the compound on August 31, 2005.
However, according to the plaintiffs, a week after gaining FDA approval Barr announced that it had decided not to manufacture or market the product, and agreed a deal to hand over its 180-day exclusive marketing rights to Teva USA, a move that appears to have cut Agvar and Ranbaxy out as suppliers of the active ingredient.
“Barr Labs’ secretly partnering with Teva while continuing to encourage and use our resources and expertise to obtain FDA approval and then cutting us out of the business is simply shocking,” said Dr Agnes Varis, president of Agvar. “Although Barr’s Bruce Downey has described himself as a ‘hustler’, I am personally disappointed and outraged that he and Teva have engaged in these unseemly acts.”
A spokeswoman for Barr as quoted by Reuters countered by saying that Barr believes the civil action to be “without merit and frivolous” and that Barr intends to defend itself against the claims.