Sanofi-Aventis sues Novartis

Sanofi-Aventis, the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical company, is suing the Novartis generic subsidiary Sandoz over the patent for Lovenox, the treatment for thrombosis.

The French pharmaceutical company is currently defending patent challenges for Lovenox, its best-selling drug that brought Sanofi-Aventis revenues of 1.2 billion euros (811 million pounds) over the first half of 2006.

Additionally, the company is protecting its patents for Plavix, the drug developed in conjunction with Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis’ second best-selling drug. It is also the third-best selling prescription drug in the UK and has achieved 1.1 billion euros in sales over the first half of this year.

Sanofi-Aventis’ earnings could be impacted significantly with generic introductions of either drug.

A spokesman for the company said that its two patents for Lovenox were valid until 2012, adding that the Sanofi-Aventis would defend patent challenges until then.

Novartis has not commented, other than stating that such patent challenges were common in the pharmaceutical industry, the Financial Times reported.

Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, has found itself in a similar position, with expiring patents on some of its best-selling drugs meaning that the company could lose up to a third of its revenue between 2004 and 2006.

Hank McKinnell, Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive officer, said many companies could not survive such a drop in income, adding that “substantial progress” had been made in creating the “next generation” Pfizer.

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