Allergan settles with New York AGO in memantine immediate-release litigation

Ireland-domiciled drugmaker Allergan (NYSE: AGN) has reached an agreement with the New York State Attorney General's Office to end the litigation over the decision of subsidiary Forest Laboratories, announced in February 2014, to cease marketing and selling the now generic version of memantine immediate release tablets.

Allergan said it would discontinue its Alzheimer’s drug Namenda IR in favor of Namenda XR, which have the same active ingredient, memantine, but Namenda XR is taken once daily rather than twice. News of the settlement saw shares of Allergan – the subject of $160 billion merger negotiations with Pfizer – rise 2.8% to $320.26 on Wednesday.

Under the terms of settlement, Allergan admits no liability, has released its counterclaims against New York, and has agreed to make a payment of around $172,000 to the State of New York to help defray a portion of the state's litigation expenses.  In addition, Allergan withdraws its petition for a writ of certiorari, filed in the Supreme Court of the United States, challenging the decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York v Actavis.