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(Adds details about case)
By Dan Levine
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 5 (Reuters) - An appeals court rulingthat extended landmark constitutional protections for gays andlesbians will not be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, aspokesman for one of the drug companies in the case said onTuesday.
The issue began when a gay man was excluded from juryservice in a lawsuit brought by GlaxoSmithKline againstAbbVie over HIV pricing. The San Francisco-based 9thU.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January had found that the manwas improperly excluded because of his sexual orientation.
The court's January opinion heightened constitutionalprotections judges in several Western states must now apply whenevaluating laws that curtail gay rights.
AbbVie spokesman Dirk Van Eeden said on Tuesday the companywould not ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuit'sfindings. A Glaxo representative could not immediately bereached for comment.
The case involved Abbott's pricing of HIV medications, acontentious issue in the gay community. Glaxo accused Abbott ofimproperly increasing the price of one drug, Norvir, to help itpreserve sales growth of one of its other HIV blockbusters,Kaletra.
Norvir plays a key role in AIDS-fighting cocktails becauseit can boost the effectiveness of other drugs. Glaxo accusedAbbott of raising Norvir's price by 400 percent in 2003 as partof an effort to harm competitors whose drugs were dependent onbeing used in combination with Norvir.
Glaxo had sought $571 million, but after a four-week trialin 2011 came away with only a $3.5 million jury award. The 9thCircuit ordered a new trial between Glaxo and AbbVie, an AbbottLaboratories spinoff.
In its January ruling, the 9th Circuit cited United Statesv. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year thatstruck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).Given the legal reasoning in Windsor, the 9th Circuit held thatgays and lesbians deserve some of the same constitutionalprotections as those enjoyed by African-Americans and women.
Juror strikes based on sexual orientation "depriveindividuals of the opportunity to participate in perfectingdemocracy and guarding our ideals of justice on account of acharacteristic that has nothing to do with their fitness toserve," 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote.
The case in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals isSmithkline Beecham Corp dba GlaxoSmithKline vs. AbbottLaboratories, No. 11-17357. (Reporting by Dan Levine; Editing by Leslie Adler and AndrewHay)
