The Age newspaper reports that Mayo Clinic has unexpectedly walked away from a multi-million dollar lawsuit accusing blood plasma company CSL
(ASX:CSL) of antitrust action.
The paper reports that around a dozen other US hospitals have also dropped out of the lawsuit, which was launched last July, leaving a much smaller pool of litigants to push the case through the US courts.
It’s unclear why the hospitals have dropped the suit, which accused CSL of fixing the price of blood plasma products in the US market.
During a visit to Australia this week, CSL global chief operating officer Peter Turner reportedly told analysts that the company has recently increased market share in the US, although demand is slow.
Mr Turner said he expected to be able to increase profit margins with smaller niche product launches and expanding markets.
Last financial year, CSL posted a 1.1 billion net profit, which was a significant improvement on the $700 million result the year before.
