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| Dr Reddy's follows Teva on Nexium
In a bid to speed up litigation on blockbuster heartburn drug Nexium (generic esomeprazole) with Anglo-Swedish pharma giant Astra Zeneca, Dr Reddy's Laboratories has field for declaratory judgement on six patents for the drug in a New Jersey district court.
In simple terms, Dr Reddy's has asked the court to let it know if its patent claims on the drug is invalid.
Dr Reddy's is the second company to file for such a declaratory judgement on Nexium.
Teva had filed for the same on May 6.
The suit is to trigger the exclusivity on the drug before the expiry of the patents in 2014, a Dr Reddy's spokesperson said, confirming the filing.
Ranbaxy Labs has the exclusivity on the generic version of Nexium, which is now the world's second-largest selling drug with sales of $5.2 billion in 2007.
Ranbaxy, which was slated to launch the generic version in mid-April, settled with AstraZeneca by postponing its launch till May 27, 2014, by which time various patents on the drug begin to expire.
This delays the launches by Teva and Dr Reddy's too, which have also challenged the Anglo-Swedish company's patents and thus have been dragged to the courts by the latter.
"The patents challenged by Dr Reddy's may not necessarily be the same as those challenged by Teva," the Dr Reddy's spokesperson said, adding the company had filed the suit tailored to its own strategy for the drug.
Interestingly, apart from the patent settlement, AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy have also entered into a manufacturing contract for supply raw material for making esomeprazole magnesium to AstraZeneca from 2009 onwards.
Meanwhile, AstraZeneca was still pursuing legal action against Teva and Dr Reddy's over Nexium patent infringements.
However, it is not clear when the filings for declaratory judgements by the two companies would come up for hearing and how soon a judgement would be forthcoming.
Under license from www.3dsyndication.com
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