Dr Reddy's settles patent row with Vivus; stock gains over 7%

Shares of Dr Reddy's Laboratories gained as much as 7.3% to Rs 2,169 in an otherwise range-bound market after Nasdaq-listed Vivus on Thursday entered into a settlement agreement with Dr Reddy’s to resolve a long-pending patent litigation related to weight management capsule Qsymia.

According to a statement issued by the US-based drug maker, the litigation, pending since 2015, resulted from the submission of an abbreviated new drug application (Anda) by Dr Reddy’s seeking approval to market generic versions of Qsymia.

The settlement permits the Hyderabad-based drugmaker to begin selling a generic version of Qsymia from June 2025, or earlier under certain circumstances. In the event of an early launch, Vivus will receive a royalty on sales of the generic version of the drug.

As required by US laws, Vivus and Dr Reddy’s will submit the settlement agreement to the US Federal Trade Commission and US Department of Justice for review.

“We are pleased to have concluded all patent litigations that we have brought in the context of the generic availability of Qsymia. We believe these settlements underscore the strength of our intellectual property and demonstrate our commitment to defending our existing patents for all our products and technologies,” Seth Fischer, chief executive of Vivus said in a statement.

At 9:37 am, the stock was trading 7% higher at Rs 2,165 as compared to 0.14% rise in BSE Sensex. The stock opened at Rs 2,130 and had hit a high and low of Rs 2,169 and Rs 2,121 respectively.