Intervet's Norwegian Vaccine Patent Upheld; To Be Transferred to "New" Merial Joint Venture

While this is nominally good news for legacy Schering-Plough's Intervet Animal Health businesses in Europe, recall that -- if the current plans of Merck and Sanofi proceed unamended by antitrust, and labour authorities -- these assets will all be contributed to the "New" Merial joint venture, later this year, leaving only 50 percent of any continuing upside for New Merck.

Here is a snippet from fishnewseu.com -- do go read it all (H/T Pharmalot):

. . . .Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health have claimed victory in a legal battle with rival pharmaceutical company Pharmaq over patents for Pancreatic Disease (PD) vaccines.

Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health’s NORVAX^® Compact PD, an inactivated virus vaccine against PD for intraperitoneal injection in Atlantic salmon, is the only approved vaccine against this devastating disease that is available on the market today. . . .

Morten Nordstad, managing director of Pharmaq expressed his disappointment at the court ruling, saying that Norwegian fish farmers will lose most. He said: "We have succeeded in developing a more effective PD vaccine for salmon than is currently on the market which shows improved growth and less side effects. It is regrettable that now we can’t bring the product into use."

He added that PHARMAQ will study the verdict from the Oslo District Court and take a position on a possible appeal however if the verdict is upheld, it will maintain Intervet/Schering Plough’s monopoly on solutions for PD virus. . . .

In addition to the merits of the case, I will note my abiding fascination with the idea that each individual salmon must receive an "intraperitoneal injection." How is this feat efficiently accomplished, on what must be hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of live "pharmed" salmon, per year? Would any of our erstwhile readers, out there, care to educate us -- in the comment box?