Abbott drops lawsuit against French AIDS activist group

Abbott Laboratories Inc. dropped a lawsuit that alleged a cyber-attack against the company's Web site by a French AIDS activist group.

The pharmaceutical and medical products maker filed the lawsuit in May against Act Up-Paris in a Paris criminal court. The company claimed the organization disrupted the company's Web site for hours on April 26, the eve of its annual meeting.

Activists have been challenging the company over what they consider excessive prices for its AIDS drugs. The North Chicago-based company has been entangled in a standoff over access to its drug Kaletra in Thailand.

"We dropped the suit as ACT Up-Paris acknowledged that communication via our Web site to doctors and patients is important," Abbott spokeswoman Jennifer Smoter said in a story posted Monday on the Chicago Tribune's Web site.

Messages left late by the Associated Press for Act-Up Paris and its New York-based sister group Act Up, or AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, were not immediately returned.