GSK settles suit with Australian Biota Holdings

NEW YORK Melbourne, Australia-based Biota Holdings and London-based GlaxoSmithKline have settled a lawsuit alleging that GSK had cost Biota hundreds of millions of dollars by failing to adequately promote a flu drug.

GSK paid Biota $19.5 million in the settlement, though Biota had sought $686.4 million in losses over the promotion of the inhaled drug Relenza (zanamivir), from which Biota had been earning royalties.

Relenza had sales of $523.3 million in 2007, according to GSK financial data. It is a competitor to Roche’s Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate), which Roche reported to have had sales of $2.04 billion during the same year.