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news.AstraZeneca has filed a patent infringement complaint against India-based Sun Pharma for planning to market a generic formulation of its intravenous acid reflux disease treatment Nexium IV.
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Reportedly, the British-Swedish pharma major had filed two lawsuits against Sun Pharma and its US subsidiary on February 26 in a federal court in Trenton, New Jersey, and on March 1 in Detroit.
US FDA approved Nexium (Esomeprazole Magnesium) in 2005. Its patents are valid in the US till 2014. Nexium is said to be the largest selling drug for AstraZeneca, with global sales of close to $5bn. Reportedly, the drug had sales of $2.84 bn in the US market in 2009.
Earlier too, AstraZeneca had sued several generic drug makers inlcuding Indian drug makers like Ranbaxy, Lupin and Dr Reddy’s for infringing the patents of other versions of Nexium. Later, Ranbaxy had entered into an out of court settlement and agreed not to launch the product in the US before 2014. Teva Pharma, an Israel-based generic drugmaker, also had entered into a similar out of court settlement.