Pliva to pay damages in inventorship suit

US generics major Barr Pharmaceuticals has confirmed that the Commercial Court, Zagreb, Croatia, announced a judgment requiring its subsidiary, Pliva, to pay 39.0 million kuna ($7.0 million) plus accrued interest, estimated at approximately 43.0 million kuna at the date of judgment, to certain former employees in connection with the invention of a process for manufacturing the antibiotic azithromycin.

The plaintiffs in the case filed a complaint against Pliva (which Barr acquired in the fall of last year; Marketletters passim) on August 22, 2001, seeking payment on account of "author's compensation" pursuant to applicable law and the company's by-law on inventive activity related to the procedure for obtaining azithromycin dehydrate from azithromycin monohydrate which is protected by Croatian patent number P921491 B1.

Barr stated that it believes it has strong grounds for an appeal of the Zagreb count's decision and noted that the obligation to pay any judgment will not arise unless the decision has been affirmed on appeal.