Anacor Pharmaceuticals appoints arbitrator to resolve its dispute with Valeant Pharmaceuticals

Anacor Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ANAC) today announced that the arbitrator appointed to resolve its dispute with Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Valeant), successor in interest to Dow Pharmaceutical Sciences, Inc. (DPS), has issued an Interim Final Award in favor of Anacor, awarding Anacor $100 million in damages as well as all costs of the arbitration and reasonable attorney's fees.

The parties may apprise the arbitrator of any issues not resolved in the Interim Final Award order within ten days, and responses to any such submission are due within fifteen days of the date of the Interim Final Award. If no submissions are made, this Interim Final Award will become final

The Final Award will be submitted to the court of appropriate jurisdiction for confirmation and enforcement. The timeframe for this legal process is subject to the court's time schedule; however, Anacor currently expects confirmation of the award before year-end 2013 at which point the judgment will become enforceable. Valeant will likely have 60 to 100 days, but in no event more than 180 days, from the date of confirmation to appeal the decision to confirm the award. In order to reverse the Arbitrator's decision, under California law the courts would have to determine the occurrence of one of the events described under Section 1286.2(a) of the California Code of Civil Procedure.

In addition to the claims related to this ruling, Anacor believes it has additional claims against Valeant related to separate contractual rights and intellectual property rights and is evaluating options for pursuing those claims independently of this decision.

Background on the Arbitration

On October 24, 2012, Anacor provided notice to Valeant seeking to commence arbitration with JAMS of a breach of contract dispute under a master services agreement dated March 26, 2004 between Anacor and DPS. This agreement related to certain development services provided by DPS in connection with Anacor's efforts to develop its topical antifungal product candidate for the treatment of onychomycosis. Anacor's assertions included breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition.