By Tess Stynes

United Therapeutics Corp. (UTHR) on Wednesday said it agreed to grant to Novartis AG's (NVS) Sandoz Inc. unit a nonexclusive license to sell a generic version of the biotechnology company's hypertension drug Remodulin by June 2018.

The agreement ends a long-running dispute between the two companies, both of which also agreed to end all pending litigation. American depositary shares of Novartis rose 2.9% in recent premarket trading.

Sandoz could be permitted to enter the market sooner under certain circumstances, United Therapeutics said in a news release.

The license excludes other United Therapeutics products, as well as technology related to an implantable version of Remodulin that United Therapeutics is developing with medical-device maker Medtronic PLC (MDT) and a pre-filled semi-disposable pump system being developed with DEKA Research & Development Corp.

United Therapeutics last year won a partial victory in its patent battle with Sandoz, when a federal judge ruled that Sandoz's generic drug application would infringe one of the patents in the legal dispute, potentially protecting Remodulin from generic competition until the second half of 2017.

Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 30, 2015 09:42 ET (13:42 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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