Magnusson Finland advised medicine manufacturer Sandoz A/S in the Supreme Administrative Court of Finland

Magnusson Finland advised medicine manufacturer Sandoz A/S in the Supreme Administrative Court in a matter concerning procurement decision given by the North Ostrobothnia Hospital District Municipal Association. The procurement decision concerned procurement of the medicine rituximab IV and their biosimilars.

The question before the Supreme Administrative Court was whether it was possible to make a procurement decision which was conditional on the ruling of a patent dispute.

The Supreme Administrative Court held, as the Market Court, that the prerequisites set in the procurement decision for the selection of the winning tenderer did not comply with the principle of proportionality provided in the Procurement Act and consequently, the contracting entity had acted against the legal norms regulating public procurements when concluding a conditional procurement agreement.

In addition, the Supreme Administrative Court held that the maximum amount of the compensatory fine referred to in subsection 2 of section 155 of the Finnish Procurement Act had to be determined in accordance with the value of the procurement agreement under which the contracting entity had procured the medicinal products from a third tenderer. The North Ostrobothnia Hospital District Municipal Association was ordered to pay Sandoz A/S a compensatory fine of EUR 60.000.

Sandoz A/S is a global leader in generic and biosimilar medicines. The Magnusson Team comprised Partner, Attorney-at-law Ville Salonen, Attorney-at-law Mika Laapotti and Associate Laura Hakala