Arbitration Digest (January 2021)

CASE LAW DEVELOPMENTS

A Pharmaceutical Conflict over an ICC Award Is Building Momentum

The Taiwanese company PharmaEssentia is trying to challenge an ICC award issued in a dispute with its Austrian counterparty. The dispute arose over a license agreement for the development and commercialization of a leukemia drug.

In October 2020, the ICC tribunal ruled in favor of the Austrian company AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals, awarding it EUR 2 billion. The dispute resulted from PharmaEssentia's attempt to terminate a license agreement, under which it undertook to provide to AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals a substance for the drug for running clinical trials before releasing the drug into the market. In response, AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals initiated an arbitration claiming damages for the uncertainty created and a delay of clinical trials.