The company, which has since been acquired by Teva had was alleged to have violated a patent on a drug for the treatment of diabetes Type II.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has ruled against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) subsidiary Ivax in a patent infringement suit first brought against it while it was still an independent company.
Ivax was first sued by in January 2006 by Californian company Depomed Inc. (Nasdaq: DEPO) who alleged it had infringed its patent on extended release metformin hydrochloride tablets for the treatment of diabetes type II. In today's ruling, Judge Charles Breyer granted Depomed's request for a summary judgment of infringement by Ivax and denied all three of Ivax’s summary judgment motions on validity and enforceability of the patents, and its claim that it had not willfully infringed Depomed's patent.
The court did not set a trial date for the case although today's ruling means that infringement of Depomed’s patents has been established as a matter of law, and is therefore no longer in dispute.
Teva announced its acquisition of Ivax for $7.6 billion in 2005, and closed the deal in February 2006.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on December 13, 2007
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2007