Sun Pharma: Wyeth Claims Damages Of $960 Million In Protonix Case
15 Février 2012 - 4:50PM
Dow Jones News
India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (524715.BY) Wednesday
said Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. unit is
claiming damages of $960 million in a patent dispute over a generic
version of the U.S. company's Protonix heartburn drug.
A U.S. court had in 2010 turned down Sun Pharmaceutical's plea
seeking to deem Pfizer's Protonix patent invalid. This had opened
the way for damage claims against the generic producers of the
drug--India's Sun Pharmaceutical and Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical
Industries Ltd. (TEVA.TV).
Sun Pharma Wednesday said it has "sound reasons to disagree with
these overstated claims of Wyeth."
The Indian generic drug maker said it will now provide its own
assessment on the purported damages, following which the court will
decide on whether there has been patent misuse and determine the
appropriate level of damages.
Protonix was a top-selling drug for Wyeth, which was acquired by
Pfizer in 2009. Wyeth and Nycomed--the company from which it
licensed the Protonix patent--had filed patent-infringement suits
against Teva and Sun Pharma in 2004, seeking to block their
attempts to sell generic Protonix before patent protection expired
in January 2011.
Sun Pharma and Teva had launched generic Protonix "at risk" but
subsequently stopped sales of the drug.
-By Rumman Ahmed, Dow Jones Newswires; 91-9845104173;
rumman.ahmed@dowjones.com