This is enough to give generic drugmakers a bad name.

In an embarrassing episode, Apotex and its avuncular ceo, Bernie Sherman, were ordered late last month by a federal court judge in New York to pay $3.1 million in legal fees to a rival for a ‘debacle’ of a case, which dragged on for five years and was characterized by ‘gross negligence,’ ‘reckless indifference,’ and ‘disingenousness.’

The dispute arose after Eon Labs, which is now owned by Sandoz, was sued by Apotex for infringing its patent for cyclosporine. What amazed and angered U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohen was a series of puzzling disclosures and legal bungling over the filing of a New Zealand patent; what Sherman knew and when he knew about the New Zealand patent; and the way due diligence was handled.

Sherman, you may recall, is the same person who ran circles around Peter Dolan, the former ceo at Bristol-Myers Squibb, in a deal over the Plavix bloodthinner. He has significant experience filing patents, although plays the virgin before Cohen by claiming he isn’t an attorney and shouldn’t be expected to know some of the patent issues in the fight with Eon. Somehow, though, he knew enough to backdate a patent filing.

In his opinion, Cohen wrote the case is an example of “all that is bad in patent litigation.”

You can read more about Sherman here (payment required).

Hat tip to OrangeBookBlog, which also points out this is a lesson for patent lawyers.

[tags]Apotex, Barry Sherman, Eon Labs, Patents[/tags]