Generic Drug-maker Challenges Patent
9 Aug 2006
Apotex is challenging Bristol-Myers Squibb’s and Sanofi-Aventis’s patent on the anti-clotting drug Plavix in a Federal District Court in Manhattan. In March, the three companies reached a tentative agreement whereby the patent holders would pay Apotex to delay the production of its generic version of Plavix until 2011, just a few months before the patent expires. The agreement was made largely to avoid the costs of patent litigation, but the Federal Trade Commission investigated it as a potentially anticompetitive practice. Last week, a coalition of state attorneys general rejected the agreement. Apotex now plans to begin marketing the generic version of Plavix as early as this month—five years before the patent in question will expire.
Just the possibility of the generic version of Plavix coming to fruition has caused the stock of Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis to fall. However, Apotex’s decision to challenge the patent is not without risk: if Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis successfully defend their patent in court, Apotex would be responsible for repaying the patent-holders three times the sales losses caused by the marketing of the generic drug.
Source: Saul, S. Drug makers take a fall on talk of a generic’s release. The New York Times. August 5, 2006.
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