University Times

Pitt and Zeneca, Inc. have settled a breach of contract lawsuit that the pharmaceutical company filed in February 1999, seeking punitive damages and return of $600,000 (plus interest) that Zeneca said it gave the University to endow a professorship that was never filled.

Pitt General Counsel Alan Garfinkel said the settlement was "satisfactory to both sides" but declined to reveal details. Zeneca's lawyers did not return phone calls from the University Times.

A staff member in the office of U.S. District Justice William L. Standish, who had been scheduled to hear the case, said the two sides informed the judge this summer that they had settled out of court. "All we got from Pitt and Zeneca was a stipulation of dismissal, so we have no idea what the terms of the settlement were," the staff member said.

Zeneca had claimed it gave Pitt a total of $600,000 between 1989 and 1994 to endow a chaired professorship honoring breast cancer researcher Bernard Fisher. But the University never filled the position and refused to return the money, the company said.

Lawyers for Pitt replied that the money was "a gift donated by [Zeneca] to be used at the University's discretion" and said Pitt was not obligated to return it.

Fisher told the University Times yesterday that he didn't know of the settlement. "Nobody's said a word to me," he said.

— Bruce Steele