Amarin Corp Plc (AMRN)

[Birdbrain Ideas]

I have no doubt that Health Net will settle, unless the trial judge agrees with them and tosses them out as a defendant. But I don't agree that it's a big hurry for them. This ruling by the magistrate judge is nothing like Judge Du's decision, a final ruling after trial that was upheld by the Federal Circuit and left intact by the Supreme Court. The magistrate judge's ruling is at a very preliminary stage when she has to accept as true all the allegations that Amarin makes. It would have been a surprise to see the lawsuit dismissed at this stage. And if it had been, Amarin would have been allowed to refile it to fix any problems spotted by the magistrate judge.

They'll probably want to see how the trial judge leans. If the trial judge seems enthused about Amarin's arguments regarding Health Net, then I could see a settlement sooner than later. But we won't know that until next year. And typically, trial judges in a case like this like to make each side feel like they could lose to force them to settle and save everybody a lot of time and money.