French multinational pharmaceutical company SANOFI
logo is seen at the headquarters in Paris, France
France's Sanofi has filed a lawsuit in the United
States accusing Novo Nordisk of falsely claiming that Sanofi insulin drugs
would no longer be available for many U.S. patients so it could promote its
competing drug.
The complaint, filed by Sanofi US in U.S. District
Court for the District of New Jersey on Dec. 23, seeks an order forcing Novo
Nordisk to pay unspecified money damages and withdraw marketing materials for
its drug Tresiba.
The marketing materials urge doctors and patients to
switch from Sanofi's drugs Lantus and Toujeo, used to treat diabetes, to
Tresiba, according to Sanofi, because the Sanofi drugs will be
"blocked" by U.S. pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark in January.
Sanofi said CVS is replacing the drugs with Eli
Lilly's similar, cheaper drug Basaglar on its so-called standard formulary, a
list of drugs that health insurance plans cover.
Many health plans do not use CVS' standard formulary,
and some that do will likely continue to cover the Sanofi drugs, though
patients will have to pay more for them, Sanofi said. Sanofi also said it
offers assistance to individuals to buy the drugs if their insurance does not
cover them.
Novo Nordisk had no comment.
"(W)e believe Novo's statements concerning CVS
Caremark's formulary decision on Lantus and Toujeo coverage contain false and
misleading claims about the continued availability of Lantus and Toujeo,"
said a Sanofi spokeswoman in an emailed statement.
Lantus and Toujeo are two of the diabetes treatments
that Sanofi sells in the United States, the world's largest health market.
Sanofi posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings
in October and lifted its profit outlook for the year. But the drugmaker stuck
to its forecast that currency-adjusted sales at its embattled diabetes business
would shrink by 4 percent to 8 percent per year on average from 2015 to 2018.
REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo By Matthias
Blamont and Brendan Pierson (Additional reporting by Annabella Pultz Nielsen in
Copenhagen)
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