The lawsuit asserts that Watson’s Quasense product infringes Duramed’s US patent number 5,895,032. Watson launched its Quasense product in September 2006 following the FDA’s final approval of its abbreviated new drug application. On September 25, 2007, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued to Duramed US patent number RE39,861 related to Seasonale. On December 13, 2007, Barr filed suit against Watson in the US District Court of New Jersey alleging infringement of the ‘861 patent seeking to prevent Watson from further commercializing its Quasense product.
Paul Bisaro, Watson’s president and CEO, said: “We fully intend to continue to market Quasense, our generic version of Seasonale and will defend this case vigorously.”