Briefing

Earlier this year, judgment was handed down in the case of AstraZeneca UK Ltd-v-Albemarle International in the High Court (the AstraZeneca case).  The case related to a dispute over the supply of an anaesthetic drug called propofol.  The powerful drug rose to global attention earlier this month, when Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s doctor, was found by a Los Angeles jury to have maladministered it and involuntarily caused Jackson’s death.  Although rather less dramatic and tabloid-friendly than its recent Californian counterpart, the AstraZeneca case nevertheless provides important guidance for companies contracting in the UK, in relation to clauses offering the “right of first refusal”, upon which this article concentrates.