Horizon Pharma Responds To Express Scripts Lawsuit And Recent Allegations

DUBLIN, IRELAND--(Marketwired - November 10, 2015) - Horizon Pharma plc (NASDAQ: HZNP), a biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients’ lives by identifying, developing, acquiring and commercializing differentiated and accessible medicines that address unmet medical needs, responded to a lawsuit filed by Express Scripts and recent allegations:

Our primary concern is for the patients who, based on the profit driven actions of Express Scripts, may be denied access to medicines that are prescribed by their physicians. We are committed to ensuring that regardless of these actions, patients will have access to the medicines they need.

Less than five percent of our net sales are from prescriptions that are filled by Linden Care and processed by Express Scripts. In addition, we have a diverse group of pharmacies that participate in our patient support program and no pharmacy that participates in our primary care patient support programs account for more than 13 percent of our net sales.

The notion that Linden Care is a so-called “captive pharmacy” of Horizon Pharma is entirely false. At best Express Scripts is being reckless in its allegations and at worse it is intentionally attempting to mislead investors. As previously stated, all pharmacies that distribute Horizon branded medicines are fully independent. Horizon does not own or have an ownership stake in any pharmacy and does not possess an option to purchase any pharmacy. In addition, the relationship with these pharmacies is non-exclusive where each of these pharmacies may also fulfill prescriptions for other drug manufacturers.

The lawsuit filed by Express Scripts relates entirely to a previously disclosed dispute concerning a prior rebate agreement between the parties. As we previously disclosed approximately one year ago, we terminated the contract with Express Scripts after Express Scripts failed to live up to its contractual obligations. Indeed, after we notified Express Scripts of its breaches, Express Scripts made no effort to cure the breaches, let alone respond to our notice, within the contractual deadline to terminate the contract. The substantial majority of the monetary damages Express Scripts is seeking to recover are for prescriptions that occurred after the termination of the contract. We are still reviewing the allegations in the complaint but we believe the claims are without merit and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves.

In light of Express Scripts’ actions, we will evaluate all legal and other remedies and options.

About Horizon Pharma plc
Horizon Pharma plc is a biopharmaceutical company focused on improving patients’ lives by identifying, developing, acquiring and commercializing differentiated and accessible medicines that address unmet medical needs. The Company markets seven medicines through its orphan, primary care and specialty business units. Horizon’s global headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland. For more information, please visit www.horizonpharma.com. Follow @HZNPplc on Twitter or view careers on our LinkedIn page.