Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) rival Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: MNTA) announced after Wall Street closed yesterday that the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent for the company's "Analysis of Amino Acid Copolymer Compositions." The patent relates to methods of preparing glatiramer acetate drug product, which is marketed as Copaxone. Momenta is developing a generic version with Sandoz AG, which has filed an Abbreviated New Drug Application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the product.
Momenta CEO Craig Wheeler said, "The patent is an important addition to Momenta's intellectual property."
Yesterday, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) president and CEO Shlomo Yanai expressed confidence that Copaxone would be around for a long time as a great and profitable product. He added, "Some of the fear in investors' hearts has been answered by increasingly clear reality."
Poalim Sahar analyst Yoav Burgan said today that Momenta's announcement was important, because it is further validation of its technological capabilities. He noted that Momenta has FDA marketing approval for a generic version of anticoagulant Lovenox, which is considered a complex molecule, while Teva has not yet obtained approval for its own generic version of the drug.
"Momenta has beaten Teva on its home court, and prevailed time and again in achieving a generic version of a complex molecule," says Burgan. "Although it is impossible to make an equal comparison between challenging the Lovenox patent and Copaxone, which is much more complex, it is also impossible to say that there's no big boost to Momenta's high technological capability."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 9, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011