Johnson and Johnson wins injunction on generic Topamax

Johnson & Johnson has won a court injunction that prevents Mylan from launching a generic of the company’s TOPAMAX anticonvulsant.

Judge Stanley Chester of the US District court granted the injunction against Mylan, which is indicated as a monotherapy for patients who have been newly-diagnosed with epilepsy.

The injunction is preliminary and will be put in place until a final decision has been reached over validity of the TOPAMAX patent, with the current patent to expire in September 2008.

TOPAMAX is used to combat seizures in addition to its use in epilepsy and is indicated as an adjunctive therapy for partial onset seizures or generalised tonic-clonic seizures.

Johnson & Johnson has previously stated that people taking the anti-epilepsy drug have experience weight loss, with some patients losing 11 per cent of their body weight in a year.

TOPAMAX was also approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium as a treatment for the prevention of migraines last month, which was based on the largest-ever migraine prevention trial studied.

Dr Alok Tyagi, consultant neurologist at the Southern General Hospital Glasgow, said: “This is good news for migraine sufferers across Scotland. Topamax is an important addition to the current therapies for managing migraine and will provide relief for many sufferers from the strain of living with this condition.”