3 days ago
Wegovy maker Novo faces fee demand after losing copycat drug lawsuit
May 29 (Reuters) - (Billable Hours is Reuters' weekly report on lawyers and money. Please send tips or suggestions to opens new tab)
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk ( opens new tab is facing a request for hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees after a judge dismissed its lawsuit against a Florida pharmacy for selling products containing semaglutide, the active ingredient in its blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic.
U.S. District Judge William Jung in Tampa, Florida, dismissed Novo's lawsuit, opens new tab against Brooksville Pharmaceuticals earlier this month, dealing the company a setback in a wave of similar lawsuits against compounding pharmacies that sold semaglutide-containing drugs.
Brooksville's lawyers this week asked the judge to award them more than $439,000 in attorney and expert fees, opens new tab and costs after fighting off Novo's claims that it violated a state law barring sales of adulterated and misbranded drugs.
Compounded drugs are custom-made medicines that are based on the same ingredients as branded drugs. Federal regulations allow compounded versions to be sold to meet demand if a drug is in short supply. Both Wegovy and Ozempic were on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's drug shortage list from March 2022 to February 2025.
Jung ruled in part that the Danish drugmaker's claims were rendered moot after the FDA declared that the shortages for Ozempic and Wegovy were over.
The judge also found that Novo failed to find any patient who was actually harmed by Brooksville's compounded drug, a point that was emphasized by the pharmacy's lawyers at Frier Levitt in their Tuesday fee request.
"Novo was not aware of any instances of patient harm caused by Brooksville's semaglutide compounds. And yet, Novo continued to pursue litigation even after it became clear that its case was without merit," the fee motion said.
Novo said in a statement that its lawsuit against Brooksville Pharmaceuticals was dismissed "as a legal matter," and asserted that U.S. law prohibits compounders from making or selling "knockoff 'semaglutide drugs' with rare exceptions."
"Moving forward, any compounder that mass produces or sells knockoff drugs is breaking the law and compromising patient safety," the company said.
A spokesperson for Novo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Matthew Modafferi, a lawyer for the pharmacy at Frier Levitt, declined to comment on the fee petition.
Analysts forecast that the obesity drug market could be worth as much as $150 billion by the early 2030s.
Both Novo and Eli Lilly (LLY.N), opens new tab have waged an active campaign to crack down on medical spas, weight-loss clinics, compounding pharmacies and online sellers in a bid to stop them from selling products claiming to contain the active ingredients in their drugs. Novo said it has filed nearly 120 lawsuits across 34 states, and obtained 28 final judgments and permanent injunctions.
The case before Jung is at least the fourth lawsuit Novo has filed and lost over compounded versions of its weight-loss drug in the Middle District of Florida.
One of the defendants, Wells Pharmacy Network, sought more than $250,000 in attorney fees and costs for winning its case in the lower court. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Philip Lammens denied the request, opens new tab, finding it was premature for Wells Pharmacy to seek attorney fees while Novo was pursuing an appeal.
– Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab and chipmaker Qualcomm (QCOM.O), opens new tab are keeping teams of lawyers who have defected from large U.S. law firm Paul Weiss, court records show.
Karen Dunn, Jeannie Rhee, William Isaacson and Jessica Phillips split from Paul Weiss last week, after it struck a deal with the Trump White House in March to lift an executive order targeting the firm's legal business operations.
The four attorneys and their new firm Dunn Isaacson Rhee are defending Google in the U.S. government's lawsuit accusing it of illegally monopolizing digital advertising markets. Other Paul Weiss attorneys are still on the matter, as are teams from law firms Freshfields and Axinn Veltrop. Google declined to comment, and it has denied any wrongdoing.
Dunn and Isaacson separately are continuing to represent Qualcomm in a lawsuit in the federal court in Delaware, court records show. A group of Paul Weiss lawyers are also on that case. Isaacson and Phillips remain on the defense team for Ultimate Fighting Championship in an antitrust lawsuit with Latham & Watkins and other Paul Weiss lawyers, a filing, opens new tab showed this week.
The attorneys declined to comment. Paul Weiss did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
– Outdoor advertising giant Clear Channel (CCO.N), opens new tab has asked a federal judge in Manhattan to award it $3.1 million in fees following a five-year legal battle with the city of New Rochelle, New York over the ownership of its 16 billboards within the city limits.
Clear Channel said its lawyers from Chicago-founded Sidley Austin spent roughly 3,800 hours litigating its 2020 lawsuit against New Rochelle's "attempted, unconstitutional taking" of its billboards.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020, alleged that New Rochelle sought to remove the company's billboards without due process or compensation and gave those licenses to one of Clear Channel's competitors, which paid New Rochelle millions for exclusivity rights.
Sidley said in a court filing, opens new tab that its requested hourly rates of up to $1,400 for senior partners are "significantly below" the firm's standard rates for work in the Southern District of New York.
A Clear Channel spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the city of New Rochelle's lawyers at New York law firm Harris Beach Murtha.
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