NEW YORK – Quidel said on Monday that it and Beckman Coulter have reached a settlement of a legal dispute over the Triage B-type naturietic peptide, or BNP, assay business.
As part of the settlement, Quidel will supply reagents for the assay while transitioning the BNP business to Beckman Coulter, while Beckman will provide Quidel yearly cash payments of between $70 million and $75 million through 2029.
Specifically, Quidel will discontinue offering the Quidel BNP assay and Beckman Coulter will offer its own branded BNP assay to the market.
"Entry into the agreements enable us to focus on expanding our core businesses and executing on our longer-term strategy while also creating a stable cash flow stream for the remainder of the term of the existing BNP supply agreement," said Quidel's CEO, Douglas Bryant.
Quidel purchased the BNP business and associated real estate in San Diego from Alere in 2017 for approximately $680 million. Alere is now part of Abbott. The deal included direct commercial responsibility for the assays run on Beckman Coulter analyzers.
Litigation began shortly thereafter when Beckman's parent company, Danaher, sued Quidel, although some portions of the original lawsuit were quickly determined to be void as a matter of law.
Under the original BNP supply agreement, Quidel provided Beckman with antibodies and other components, and Beckman acted as a contract manufacturer for the BNP assays, which run exclusively on Beckman Coulter analyzers, Quidel said on Monday.
As part of the deal announced today, prior to Beckman Coulter introducing its own branded product to the market, Quidel will grant Beckman Coulter exclusive rights in certain countries to distribute the Quidel branded BNP Assay. The commercial transition in all countries is expected to be completed before the end of 2021, according to the statement.
Quidel said the settlement is expected to be EPS and cash flow neutral to the existing supply agreement through 2029.
In early morning trading on the Nasdaq Monday, Quidel stock was down approximately 5 percent to $142.89.