| AstraZeneca sues Israeli generic firm Teva over schizophrenia drug |
|
|
|
LONDON: Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca Plc. has sued Israeli firm Teva Pharmaceuticals over the latter's plan to come out with a generic version of its fastest selling schizophrenia drug, Seroquel. The company said it has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. district court of New Jersey.
The Israeli company had filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application with the US Food and Drug Administration expressing intent to market a generic version of Seroquel in the U.S. prior to the expiry of AstraZeneca's patent for the drug in 2011. Seroquel had earned AstraZeneca some $2 billion in sales in 2004.
The suit prevents the US FDA from approving a generic version of Seroquel until spring 2008, unless AstraZeneca's plea is heard and lost before that date. Such cases normally take two to three years for a decision.
Teva is one of the largest generic drug makers in the world. Generic drug makers produce drugs which world's biggest generic drug makers.
AstraZeneca is also facing threats from other pharma companies, which are planning to come out with generic versions of its largest selling brand, the ulcer pill Nexium. India's Ranbaxy Laboratories is one among such companies wanting to take up generic production of Nexium.
Generic drug manufacturers produce replicas of patented drugs when they come out of patent, making such drugs cheaper and affordable for public health programmes.
Posted
on : Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:20 GMT | Business News
By : Mark Richardson
|
| |
| Related |
|
|
|
