Last year, the California Supreme Court held in Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., that restraints in contracts between businesses should be evaluated using the same “rule of reason” standard that courts use to analyze antitrust violations under the Cartwright Act. Our previous article analyzing the Ixchel decision can be found here.
Recently, in Ixchel to overturn a decision of the San Diego Superior Court (the “Superior Court”). Procedural History The case arises from a dispute over an exclusivity provision contained in a business agreement (the “Agreement”) entered into between two biotechnology companies, Quidel Corporation (“Quidel”) and Beckman Coulter, Inc. (“Beckman”).[1] Under the terms of the Agreement, Beckman became the exclusive developer of a B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) assay for Quidel. Quidel would use these assays in a specially designed analyzer to help diagnose congestive heart failure. Section 5.2.3 of the Agreement prohibited Beckman from researching or developing its own BNP assay for diagnosing cardiac disease until two years before the expiration of the Agreement.