French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis SA (SNY) on Thursday said it settled a U.S. patent lawsuit over generic versions of its cancer treatment Eloxatin with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA), Fresenius Kabi Oncology Ltd. (532545.BY), Novartis AG's (NVS) generics unit Sandoz and Hospira Inc. (HSP).

Under the terms of the settlement, the four generic drugmakers will stop selling their generic Eloxatin products June 30 and will resume marketing them Aug. 9, 2012 under a license to re-enter the market.

The other settlement terms remain confidential, Sanofi-Aventis said, adding that all of the settlement provisions are subject to contingencies which "could enhance, diminish or eliminate the value of those settlements to the group."

Copycat versions of Eloxatin, whose generic name is oxaliplatin, were launched last August in the U.S. after a court there in June ruled that generic drugmakers who had challenged the Eloxatin patent did not infringe Sanofi's patents. Thursday's announced deal thus came as little surprise to sector observers.

Fiske analyst Peter Cartwright said, "it looks like another pay-for-delay deal, but it's not clear who is paying what," referring to the lack of details on the agreement.

Still, as Eloxatin generated EUR957 million ($1.29 billion) in sales last year -down 35% from 2008 - the settlement removing generic versions until 2012 should be seen as good news by investors.

Company Web site: www.sanofi-aventis.com

-By Elena Berton , Dow Jones Newswires . +33 1 40 17 17 65; elena.berton@dowjones.com

(Sten Stovall contributed to this article.)