Eli Lilly owes Nektar $90 mln in drug collaboration dispute, US jury says

By Reuters News

By Blake Brittain

Sept 25 (Reuters) - A federal jury in California has determined that Eli Lilly LLY.N must pay Nektar Therapeutics NKTR.O $90 million for breaking an agreement related to an autoimmune drug candidate that the companies developed together, according to a Nektar filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • The jury on Thursday agreed with Nektar that Lilly breached its duty of good faith by undermining the prospects for Rezpeg, developed to treat eczema, psoriasis and other conditions, after buying competitor Dermira.

  • A Lilly spokesperson said in a statement on Friday that the jury "confirmed that Lilly used commercially reasonable efforts to develop Rezpeg as required by the contract and awarded only a small fraction of the damages Nektar sought."

  • Nektar had requested $1 billion in damages, according to court filings.

  • "We are very pleased with the jury’s verdict, finding that Eli Lilly, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, breached its obligation to act in good faith," Nektar's lead attorney Diane Doolittle of Quinn Emanuel said in a statement.

  • Nektar said in the complaint, filed in 2023, that Lilly purposely "botched" its analysis of their drug trials to make Rezpeg appear less effective and give it a pretext to terminate their agreement

  • Lilly denied the allegations and said in a court filing that Rezpeg "did not yield acceptable clinical trial results according to the standards that Nektar and Lilly jointly developed and agreed to."

The case is Nektar Therapeutics v. Eli Lilly & Co, US District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 3:23-cv-03943.

For Nektar: Diane Doolittle of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan

For Lilly: Ryan Moorman of Kirkland & Ellis

Read more:

Nektar Therapeutics sues Eli Lilly over autoimmune disease treatment

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