Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) reports that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has denied the emergency motion filed by Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; LSE: NOV; SWX: NOVZ) for an injunction pending its appeal of a September 5, 2007 ruling by the US District Court in New Jersey preliminary injunction in favor of Teva. Teva added that it could resume sales of Famciclovir tablets, its generic version of Novartis' Famvir for the treatment of shingles and genital herpes.
Novartis had filed an emergency motion following a court’s dismissal of its request for an injunction. Novartis brought a patent infringement suit against Teva in April 2005 regarding the generic version, though a trial date has not been set.
As the first company to file an abbreviated new drug application for Famciclovir, Teva has been awarded a 180-day period of marketing exclusivity, which will begin to run from the date of first commercial marketing. Teva said that while Famvir has $200 million in annual US sales, it expects that its generic version will be quite profitable because it also produces the active pharmaceutical ingredient.
On Friday, Teva closed at $44.47 in Nasdaq trading, near its 52-week high of $44.93. Its market cap is nearly $33.9 billion.
Last week, Teva announced that it had reached a settlement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) over generic versions of three GlaxoSmithKline drugs: Avandia , Avandamet, and Avandaryl. All three are diabetes treatments.
Under the agreement, details of which remain confidential, Teva will able to launch generic versions of the three drugs in oral tablet form in the first quarter, 2012.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on September 30, 2007
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2007