Actelion to appeal even though US court cuts original verdict by nearly $170 million in dispute with Asahi

Despite a final judgement issued on Friday by the Superior Court of the State of California, USA, to reduce the original verdict by nearly $170 million, Swiss biotech firm Actelion (SIX: ATLN) today confirmed its intention to appeal the verdict in the case of Japan’s Asahi Kasei Pharma versus Actelion et al (case number CIV 478533.

The dispute relates to a licensing and development agreement between the two companies regarding Asahi’s fasudil, a potential treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension, being developed by the Japanese firm and CoTherix, which Actelion acquired in 2007. Actelion, whose leading product Tracleer (bosentan) is for the treatment of PAH, dropped further development of fasudil.

In May this year a jury awarded Asahi up to $547 million in compensatory damages ($358.95 million in alleged lost profits and $187.4 million for alleged development costs). In addition, the jury awarded punitive damages of $30 million against certain individual officers of the company.