According to the report, the US Court of Appeals for the federal circuit has affirmed a previous court’s decision that a patent on the medicine is both valid and enforceable. Teva agreed that it infringed the patent, which covers the compound lansoprazole, the key ingredient in Prevacid.
As a result of the ruling, Teva expects to market its generic version of Tap Pharmaceutical Products’s Prevacid delayed release capsules, 15mg and 30mg no later than November 10, 2009, when the patent is otherwise set to expire.
Previously, Prevacid was sold by Tap Pharmaceutical Products, a former venture between Takeda and Abbott Laboratories. Later, when the companies split the venture, Takeda acquired the rights to Prevacid.