An an­ti-com­pet­i­tive­ness fine has just been re­voked against neigh­bor­ing Swiss phar­ma gi­ants Roche and No­var­tis.

A rul­ing from the Paris Court of Ap­peal Thurs­day cleared Roche and No­var­tis of a fine in the hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars, which was orig­i­nal­ly brought against the two sev­er­al years ago amid ac­cu­sa­tions that the com­pa­nies worked to dis­par­age un­ap­proved use of a cheap­er drug in lieu of a more ex­pen­sive drug.

The fine was first levied against the phar­ma neigh­bors — on­ly lo­cat­ed about 1.7 miles apart in Basel — back in 2020. France’s an­ti-com­pet­i­tive­ness watch­dog had charged the pair of con­spir­ing to in­crease sales of Lu­cen­tis, a drug for wet age-re­lat­ed mac­u­lar de­gen­er­a­tion (AMD) that Roche makes and No­var­tis mar­kets in Eu­rope.

The suit at the time said that the com­pa­nies had con­spired to keep and in­crease the mar­ket share of the ther­a­py to butt out Avastin, a drug made by Genen­tech and in­di­cat­ed for re­cur­rent glioblas­toma in adults. How­ev­er, de­spite be­ing around 2-4% of Lu­cen­tis’ price, Avastin was re­port­ed to have sim­i­lar ef­fi­ca­cy in wet AMD.

Avastin is not ap­proved for wet AMD. Yet, a 2012 NIH study con­clud­ed that Avastin and Lu­cen­tis are “equiv­a­lent in treat­ing age-re­lat­ed mac­u­lar de­gen­er­a­tion.”

Fast for­ward to 2023, and the Paris Court of Ap­peal over­turned the fine, which was orig­i­nal­ly €385.1 mil­lion ($411.9 mil­lion) against No­var­tis and €59.7 mil­lion ($63.9 mil­lion) against Roche and its sub­sidiary Genen­tech.

The 121-page rul­ing from this week said that com­mu­ni­ca­tions from the com­pa­nies can­not be con­sid­ered “alarmist or even mis­lead­ing,” and that cer­tain ac­tions done on Roche’s part could not have had any an­ti-com­pet­i­tive ef­fect.

A Roche spokesper­son tells End­points News that Roche “wel­comes the de­ci­sion of the Paris Court of Ap­peal to re­voke in all re­spects the de­ci­sion of the FCA,” which added that the FCA had “con­demned Roche and No­var­tis for abuse of a col­lec­tive dom­i­nant po­si­tion on the AMD treat­ment French mar­ket.”

No­var­tis said in a state­ment to End­points that the phar­ma gi­ant “strong­ly con­test­ed these al­le­ga­tions from the out­set and firm­ly be­lieves the com­pa­ny has act­ed ap­pro­pri­ate­ly and in com­pli­ance with com­pe­ti­tion law and the in­ter­ests of pa­tients at all times.”

The phar­ma added that “No­var­tis firm­ly be­lieves that mea­sures en­cour­ag­ing wide­spread off-la­bel use and re­im­burse­ment of a med­i­cine in an un­li­censed in­di­ca­tion, de­spite the pres­ence of li­censed med­i­cines on the mar­ket, are a threat to the es­tab­lished le­gal, med­ical and reg­u­la­to­ry sys­tem that is in place to guar­an­tee the ap­proval and use of ef­fec­tive and safe med­i­cines in pa­tients.”

Paul McKenzie took over as CEO of Australian pharma giant CSL this month, following in the footsteps of long-time CSL vet Paul Perreault.

With an eye on mRNA, and quickly commercializing its new, $3.5 million-per-shot gene therapy for hemophilia B, McKenzie and chief medical officer Bill Mezzanotte answered some questions from Endpoints News this afternoon about where McKenzie is going to take the company and what advances may be coming to market from CSL’s pipeline. Below is a lightly edited transcript.

Boehringer Ingelheim reported human pharma sales of €18.5 billion on Wednesday, led by type 2 diabetes and heart failure drug Jardiance and pulmonary fibrosis med Ofev. Jardiance sales reached €5.8 billion, growing 39% year over year, while Ofev took in €3.2 billion, notching its own 20.6% annual jump.

However, Boehringer is also looking ahead with its pipeline, estimating “In the next seven years the company expects about 20 regulatory approvals in human pharma.”

The FDA today approved Emergent BioSolutions’ Narcan brand naloxone nasal spray for over-the-counter sales. The nod was expected and comes on the heels of a unanimous 19-0 advisory committee vote in favor of approval last month.

The move to OTC means the opioid overdose reversal agent will now be available on grocery, convenience and gas stations shelves, as well as potentially for purchase online.