Sanofi-aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb order drug injunction

Sanofi-aventis and partner Bristol-Myers Squibb hope for an injunction against Apotex to stop it selling a competitive drug, it was announced today.

The partnership is moving towards a preliminary injunction against Apotex to stop the company producing a generic clopidogrel bisulfate product that competes with Plavix. The motion has currently been filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ? with a hearing scheduled for August 18th 2006.

Sanof-aventis and Bristol Myers Squibb state that Aoptex is a drug that infringes on their intellectual property rights and consequently intend to defend what they believe is an infringement of those rights.

The partnership states that the new indictment follows a previous announcement by Apotexon August 8th 2006, where it launched generic clopidogrel bisulfate 75 mg tablets.

Forbes reports that analysts believe the partnership stand a good chance of winning the injunction, which could lead to Plavix being kept off the shelves until early next year, awaiting a court ruling on the patent for the drug.

Newratings further reports that Sanofi-aventis reacted slowly with regards to filing the injunction, with a trader saying: “I doubt the shares will find much support from this. Analysts have been wondering for days why the company’s taken so long to deal with this.”

Sanofi-aventis states it aims to “mirror the priorities of the NHS” by reducing mortality from heart disease, cancer, suicide, adult smoking and obesity/ It is also one of the fastest growing pharmaceuticals in the UK, with a current market share of 6.4 per cent.

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