Mumbai, July 15: Sun Pharmaceutical Industries today said a US district court had dismissed a complaint filed by Taro Pharmaceutical that sought to block an open offer launched by the Indian company to purchase all outstanding shares of Taro.

“The court for the Southern District of New York had dismissed in its entirety the complaint filed by Taro seeking to block the tender offer by Sun’s subsidiary Alkaloida Chemical Company Exclusive Group to purchase all outstanding ordinary shares of Taro,” Sun Pharma said in a statement.

Sun Pharma is the single-largest shareholder in Taro with over 35 per cent stake. It has been trying to gain control of Taro ever since their $454-million merger deal in 2007 was unilaterally terminated by the Israeli firm a year later, citing undervaluation.

After this, both the companies filed cases against each other and the matter lay pending in the Israeli Supreme Court.

Alkaloida Chemical had launched an open offer in 2008 to acquire additional shares of Taro. After this, Taro had filed a litigation against the Indian firm in the US district court to block its open offer.

The district court rejected Taro’s claims about Sun and Alkaloida failing to make adequate disclosures vis-a-vis the offer.

The US court also dismissed Taro’s other claims, including breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets.

The court has given two weeks to Taro to file a new complaint correcting the errors in its earlier petition.

“However, even if Taro revives its state law claims, that will not entitle Taro to obtain the injunction it was seeking to enjoin consummation of Alkaloida’s offer,” Sun Pharma said.

Dilip Shanghvi, chairman and managing director, Sun Pharma said, “Sun is pleased, but not surprised, by this decision. The US district court’s complete dismissal of Taro’s complaint confirms that this lawsuit was just one more unfortunate attempt by Taro directors to divert Taro’s limited resources to assisting the Levitt family in their ongoing refusal to comply with their contractual obligations.”

Buoyed by the US court ruling, the Sun Pharma scrip surged on the Bombay Stock Exchange in mid-day trading today. However, it could not hold on to the gains and closed the day in the red.