Actelion: court grants new trial vs Asahi

Actelion Ltd said on Monday a California court has granted its bid for a new trial in its licensing dispute with Asahi Kasei unless the Japanese drugmaker consents to reduce its damages claim.

In May, a court originally awarded Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation up to $547 million to settle its dispute with the Swiss biotech's CoTherix unit. The dispute concerns a licensing and development agreement between Asahi and CoTherix for the drug compound fasudil that was terminated when Actelion bought CoTherix in 2007.

On Monday, Actelion said it continued to believe that there was significant grounds for a successful appeal, which it planned to file in due course.

"If Asahi accepts this proposal... the court's final award would be $407.325 million including punitive damages of $30 million against certain individual officers of the company," Actelion said in a statement.

Actelion has said it could post a loss this year as a result of the strong franc and also due to a $577 million provision it made for compensation and punitive damages awarded in the Asahi case.