Krka, d. d., Novo mesto (hereafter Krka) has received the complaint filed at the District Court in Helsinki by plaintiffs Merck Frosst Canada Limited, Canada, Merck Sharp & Dohme B.V., Netherlands and MSD Finland Oy, Finland (hereafter together MSD), against defendant parties Krka and Krka’s subsidiary Krka Sverige AB for alleged infringement of the patent FI 104 897 protecting one of several possible manufacturing processes for production of active pharmaceutical ingredient montelukast in Finland.

The plaintiffs require that the court prohibits both defendant parties from manufacturing, selling, offering for sale, marketing and importing of the product Montelukast Krka in Finland and awards damages for the patent infringement. The plaintiffs claimed damages at EUR 45,477.00 in the period from launch until 30 September 2009, with the interest from the day of the lawsuit filing until the damages payment.

Krka had already filed the declaratory action in Finland, asking the Court to establish that Krka’s manufacturing process employed by Krka for production of montelukast, does not infringe the MSD patent rights which protects manufacturing process for montelukast API in Finland.

Krka estimates that in the next year the sales of this product in Finland would reach approximately half a million EUR.