The Secretary of State for Health and Others v Servier Laboratories Ltd and Others
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Mr Justice Henderson |
| Judgment Date | 12 October 2012 |
| Neutral Citation | [2012] EWHC 3663 (Ch) |
| Docket Number | HC 11C01423 |
| Court | Chancery Division |
| Date | 12 October 2012 |
[2012] EWHC 3663 (Ch)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
CHANCERY DIVISION
The Rolls Building
7 Rolls Buildings
Fetter Lane
London EC4A 1NL
Mr Justice Henderson
HC 11C01423
Mr David Drake (instructed by Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP) appeared on behalf of the Claimants
Mr Nicholas Green QC and MS KELYN BACON (instructed by Bristows) appeared on behalf of the Defendants
(As approved)
I now need to deal with the proposals relating to disclosure which will come into operation 21 days after the end of the stay. When that will be depends of course on when the oral hearing takes place, which in itself is far from certain. I understand there is a provisional date fixed for some time around the end of January next year, but that may be subject to variation, and plainly it is not a matter over which this court has any control.
The first issue I need to decide is whether at the initial stage, that is to say within 35 days after the end of the stay, the parties should serve proposals for the scope of disclosure in the limited form which is now favoured by the defendants or in the more detailed form for which the claimants are arguing. The claimants would like the order to contain detailed provisions as set out in the draft order prepared on their behalf (I will not read them in full), which would require the defendants to identify a large amount of information including a considerable amount of information which technically would not be a matter of disclosure but rather a matter of the provision of further information, and would also include detailed proposals about information to which they have access and of which they propose to give disclosure, and equally about information which they say falls outside the proper scope of disclosure, but provided in a detailed form which would enable the claimants to form a view on whether they agree with it or not and to formulate with precision any areas of disagreement for the court to rule upon.
In a similar vein, the claimants ask that there should be a statement of whether the defendants propose to give disclosure of any hitherto undisclosed agreements which have been reached with any of the generic suppliers concerning the supply of perindopril or the settlement of disputes. The purpose of an order in that form, as Mr Drake has explained, is to flush out at an early stage areas of possible disagreement, not only about the scope of disclosure, but also, and equally importantly, about the nature, availability and location of documents which Servier may wish to contend fall outside the scope of standard disclosure.
The claimants', if I simply make an order in the terms asked for by the defendants, that is to say setting out the scope of the disclosure that they intend to provide and setting out the searches which they intend to make, is that...
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The Secretary of State for Health and Others v Servier Laboratories Ltd and Others
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