Eisai wins favourable outcome in preliminary injunction

An action filed by Eisai in December 2005 in a patent infringement lawsuit regarding donepezil hydrochlorate tablets has been granted a favourable preliminary injunction ruling, the firm has announced.

Eisai filed the actions when Teva Pharmaceuticals submitted a new application to the FDA for the Aricept drug.

“We are pleased with the court’s preliminary injunction decision to prevent the sale of Teva’s generic product before the expiration of the donepezil composition of matter patent,” said Eisai’s North American chairman and chief executive Hajime Shimzu.

Mr Shimzu added that the firm plans to continue to “actively protect” its intellectual property.

Aricept was launched in the US in 1997 and is used to treat forms of dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

In the UK, it is estimated that Alzheimer’s disease – the most common type of dementia – affects around 417,000 people.

The disease is attributed to a number of causes, with risk factors including genetic inheritance, age and environmental factors, as well as people with high blood pressure, smokers and those with high cholesterol.