Amarin Corp Plc (AMRN)

[Birdbrain Ideas]

The person on Stock Twits has it all wrong. Amarin's doing the right thing in settling this now. The agreement itself might not be made public, but I imagine there will be some kind of joint statement by the parties that will make it clear that Vascepa will no longer be trampled on by Health Net. Vascepa will be treated equally to generics. Most likely, Amarin is getting what it was demanding when it met with the Health Net rep before filing the lawsuit. It wasn't asking for a lot then, only to be playing on a level playing field against generics. The company was never really seeking financial damages out of this. It wanted a settlement all along, so it can wave the deal in front of other insurance companies.

Going to trial carries all kinds of risks, as we learned with Judge Du. The judge who dismissed Hikma from the lawsuit could more easily have dismissed Health Net down the road, when a judge is not required to view the facts in the most favorable way toward the plaintiff. Meanwhile, settling saves millions of dollars in legal costs, makes the company seem a little cleaner to a potential buyer and likely improves Amarin's standing with larger insurance companies, who might have been a bit spooked by the fact that an insurance company was sued at all.