Category Archives: Legal News

Sun Pharma settles US patent litigation with Actavis over skin care drug

 

The settlement is subject to review by the US Federal Trade Commission and the US department of justice, Sun Pharma said. Photo: Bloomberg

Mumbai: Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, has settled a patent litigation with Actavis over the generic version of Absorica, a drug used to treat acne.

Ranbaxy, along with its partners, Cipher Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Galephar Pharmaceutical Research, Inc. have entered into a settlement with Actavis that dismisses the lawsuit relating to Actavis’s abbreviated new drug application (ANDA) for a generic version of Absorica (isotretinoin capsules), Sun Pharma said.

Absorica is used to treat severe recalcitrant nodular acne, a skin disease, in patients 12 years of age and older.

As part of the agreement, Ranbaxy, Cipher and Galephar have entered into a non-exclusive license agreement with Actavis under which Actavis may start selling its generic version of Absorica in the US on 27 December 2020 (nine months before the expiration of the patents in September 2021) or earlier under certain circumstances, it said.

In 2014, Ranbaxy had introduced Absorica 25 mg and 35 mg capsules in the US after the product was licensed from Cipher Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

The settlement is subject to review by the US Federal Trade Commission and the US department of justice, Sun Pharma said.

Read Full Article – http://www.livemint.com/Companies/FzFiRFnBqLKVKWbhCBYnfM/Sun-Pharma-settles-patent-litigation-with-Actavis.html

Italian wiretaps suggest that Toronto is on the verge of a mafia war

October 29, 2015

The long tentacles of the infamous Calabrian mafia are causing trouble in Canada. According to Italian prosecutors, the Toronto outposts of the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate may be preparing for armed confrontation.

Wiretaps recorded by Italian investigators show that following a high-profile mob killing in a Toronto suburb in 2014, tensions between mafia families from Italy’s Calabria region are brewing, Canada’s National Post reports.

The conversations of an accused mob member who returned to Italy from Toronto “seriously highlight the danger of an escalation of an armed conflict within the coterie of ’Ndrangheta clans,” Italian prosecutors concluded, “particularly among the Coluccio and the Figliomeni (clans).”

The Italian prosecutors, who prepared a series of documents as part of a sweeping anti-mafia case, said the escalation follows the murder of Carmine Verduci, a big mafioso in the Toronto area. The prosecutors are cooperating with Canadian police.

The National Post spoke to Toronto law enforcement, who haven’t noticed any increased activity among Italian organized crime figures.

Earlier this year, Canadian police broke up a ‘Ndrangheta drug ring, arresting 19 alleged high-level members of the criminal network. According to The National Post, there are at least seven primary ‘Ndrangheta clans in Toronto, supplying a “continuous flow of cocaine.” The Calabrian mafia is among the most powerful criminal organizations in the world. According to one estimate, in 2013 the clans made more than McDonald’s and Deutsche Bank put together.

Read Full Article – http://qz.com/536460/italian-wiretaps-suggest-that-toronto-is-on-the-verge-of-a-mafia-war/

Court: Anti-Muslim slurs get legal protection

By Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

8:45 a.m. EDT October 29, 2015

Marching around with a pig’s head on a pole while telling Dearborn Muslims they would “burn in hell” may have been loathsome and intolerable — but the First Amendment still protects and allows such activity, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

In a case that tests the limits of free speech, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a group of Christian evangelists who were evicted from a 2012 Arab-American street festival over their conduct. The demonstrators were marching around with a pig’s head mounted on a pole while carrying anti-Muslim signs and making anti-Muslim statements.

Sheriff’s deputies removed the demonstrators —  who were pelted with rocks, eggs and water bottles — to restore the peace.

But that triggered a lawsuit by a California group called Bible Believers, which claimed that Wayne County sheriff’s deputies failed to protect them, and instead unlawfully kicked them out to silence their protected speech.

The lawsuit failed twice, once in federal court in Detroit, then again before a three-judge panel with the Sixth Circuit, which concluded the sheriff’s deputies were justified in evicting the demonstrators.

The suit then went before the entire Sixth Circuit bench, which reversed course and ruled in favor of the Christian evangelists, concluding their speech was protected,

“Diversity, in viewpoints and among cultures, is not always easy. An inability or a general unwillingness to understand new or different points of view may breed fear, distrust and even loathing,” the justices wrote. “But … the First Amendment demands that we tolerate the viewpoints of others with whom we may disagree.”

The Sixth Circuit stressed that the First Amendment “envelops all manner of speech, even when that speech is loathsome in its intolerance, designed to cause offense, and, as a result of such offense, arouses violent retaliation.”

Attorney Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center, who argued the case on behalf of the Bible Believers, applauded the decision, saying it was  “solidly on the side of free speech.”

“If this went the other way, it would incentivize  violence as a legitimate response to free speech, and that is wrong in our country,” Muise said.  “Any freedom-loving American enjoys protections of the First Amendment.”

Read Full Article – http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2015/10/28/court-evangelists-pigs-head-slurs-deserved-protection/74755074/

Producers of Tupac Biopic Sued for $10 Million

Ron Galella/Getty Images
By Christina Lee • October 29, 2015

Translation: No, you won’t be seeing the film anytime soon.

Production company Emmett/Furla Oasis has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Morgan Creek Productions. Both companies are producing the anticipated Tupac biopic; however, Emmett/Furla claims that Morgan Creek cast its Tupac Shakur without their permission—a breach of their contract. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan Creek agreed to let Emmett/Furla have sole approval of the film’s director and the lead actor.

This latest development (if you can call it that) has hardly been the film’s only setback. John Singleton, who worked with the rapper and Janet Jackson in 1993’s Poetic Justice, was set to direct the biopic but then exited production in April. He now wants to direct a Tupac film of his own. “The people involved [in the biopic] aren’t really respectful of the legacy of Tupac,” John said at the time on Instagram. Carl Franklin is now set to direct.

In 2009, Morgan Creek sued Tupac’s mother Afeni Shakur over the music rights to the film. Afeni countersued before both parties eventually settled in 2011.

Tupac is more than deserving of a film about his life. Among other life events, he started rapping while enrolled in a performing arts school, only for his mother Afeni to miss the early years of his music career because she got addicted to crack cocaine. Politicians feared him as he faced death threats. He survived several shootings as he rapped about how he was going to die at a young age, all before he was fatally shot at 25.

Revisit the Poetic Justice trailer below.

Full Article – https://myspace.com/article/2015/10/29/emett-furla-oasis-sue-morgan-creek-productions-tupac-biopic

Satanist Awaiting Murder Trial Found Dead of Apparent Suicide in North Carolina Jail

Chris Thompson