Commitments and Contingencies
Legal Proceedings
DSE Litigation
On March 27, 2023, the Company filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking declaratory judgment against DSE regarding the Company’s right to receive a $300.0 million milestone payment upon inclusion of cardiovascular risk reduction in the EU label that correlates with a relative risk reduction rate of at least 20%, based on the results of the CLEAR Outcomes CVOT.
On January 2, 2024, the Company entered into the Settlement Agreement with DSE to amicably resolve and dismiss the commercial dispute then pending in the Southern District of New York. Under the Settlement Agreement, DSE agreed to pay the Company an aggregate of $125.0 million, including (1) a $100.0-million payment within 15 business days of the effective date of the Settlement Agreement and (2) a $25.0-million payment in the calendar quarter immediately following the calendar quarter in which the EMA renders a decision on the application that was filed with the EMA for a Type II(a) variation for the Company's oral non-statin products marketed as NILEMDO® (bempedoic acid) tablets and NUSTENDI® (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe) tablets in Europe. The legal action pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has now been dismissed. Both milestones, totaling $125.0 million, were received in 2024 and included in collaboration revenue on the statements of operations.
ANDA Litigation
Starting in March 2024, the Company received notices from nine pharmaceutical companies, six of which filed exclusively with respect to NEXLETOL and four of which filed with respect to NEXLETOL and NEXLIZET (each, an “ANDA Filer”), notifying the Company that each company had filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application (“ANDA”) with the FDA seeking approval of a generic version of NEXLETOL and/or NEXLIZET in the United States, as applicable. The ANDAs each contained Paragraph IV certifications alleging that certain of the Company’s Orange Book listed patents covering NEXLETOL or NEXLIZET, as applicable, are invalid and/or will not be infringed by each ANDA Filer’s manufacture, use or sale of the medicine for which the ANDA was submitted.
Under the Hatch-Waxman Act to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the “FDCA”), the Company had 45 days from receipt of the notice letters to commence patent infringement lawsuits against these generic drug manufacturers in a federal district court to trigger a stay precluding the FDA’s approval of any ANDA from being effective any earlier than 7.5 years from the date of approval of the NEXLETOL or NEXLIZET, as applicable, new drug application or entry of judgment holding the patents invalid, unenforceable, or not infringed, whichever occurs first.
Beginning in May 2024, the Company filed patent infringement lawsuits under the Hatch-Waxman Act in the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, against each ANDA Filer: Accord Healthcare Inc.; Alkem Laboratories Ltd.; Aurobindo Pharma Limited (along with an affiliate); Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Inc. (along with an affiliate); Hetero USA Inc. (along with affiliates); Micro Labs USA Inc. (along with an affiliate); MSN Pharmaceuticals Inc. (along with an affiliate); Renata Limited; and Sandoz Inc. The Company’s complaints allege that by filing the applicable ANDA, such ANDA Filer has infringed NEXLETOL’s and/or NEXLIZET’s Orange Book patents, as applicable, included in its Paragraph IV certifications, and seek an injunction preventing the FDA from granting final approval of the ANDA before the expiration of the asserted patents, and a permanent injunction to prevent the ANDA Filer from commercializing a generic version of NEXLETOL and/or NEXLIZET, as applicable, until the expiration of the asserted patents. The trial is anticipated to begin no earlier than January 2027, but no trial date has been set.