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news.Wyeth Pharmaceuticals has reported that it will pursue a patent infringement claim for lost profits and other damages against Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, resulting from Teva's launch of a pantoprazole tablet, a generic version of Wyeth's Protonix.
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On September 6, 2007 the US District Court of New Jersey has denied Wyeth and Altana’s motion for a preliminary injunction against the launch of a generic pantoprazole tablet by Teva and Sun Pharmaceuticals prior to resolution of a pending patent infringement proceeding. Although Teva and Sun did not dispute that such a launch would infringe the Protonix patent, the court found that the defendants had raised sufficient questions about the validity of the patent to preclude the issuance of the extraordinary remedy of a preliminary injunction. The court did not conclude that the patent was invalid and emphasized that its findings were preliminary.
The court said that at trial, the generic companies would face the higher burden of demonstrating by clear and convincing evidence that the patent is not valid. At trial, Wyeth will seek to recover its lost profits and other damages resulting from Teva’s infringing sales and a permanent injunction against future sales of generic pantoprazole prior to expiration of the Protonix patent. That patent will expire in July 2010, but Wyeth’s marketing exclusivity may be extended until January 2011 as a result of clinical research undertaken by the company regarding the pediatric use of the product.