Court sets trial date for Biota vs GSK

The Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia, has set a trial date for the long-running dispute between local firm Biota Holdings and UK-based drug major GlaxoSmithKline over the influenza drug Relenza (zanamivir; Marketletters passim). Justice Whelan ordered the parties to be prepared for the trial, which is to commence on April 1, 2008.

Biota claims that the GSK group breached contractual and fiduciary duties owed to Biota by failing to properly develop, promote and support the world's first broad-spectrum anti-flu drug Relenza, for both seasonal and pandemic stockpiling purposes.

Relenza was an Australian discovery and a global first in a new class of influenza drugs. Biota licensed it to GSK in 1990 in order to bring the drug to world markets. The writ seeks unspecified damages for lost revenues to date, as well as future losses through the life of the product's patents.