Teva Sues Kyowa Hakko Over Pravachol Patent Infringement
This article was originally published in PharmAsia News
Executive Summary
Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the world's largest maker of generic drugs, filed a suit against Kyowa Hakko Kogyo on grounds the Japanese firm violated a patent held by Teva's Hungarian subsidiary. The suit involves a compound for an anti-cholesterol Pravachol (pravastatin sodium), patented in the United States by Bristol Myers Squibb, and for which the Teva subsidiary received a Japanese patent in 2005. Kyowa Hakko said it began producing the raw material in 2003 as the basis for a generic drug it now sells on the domestic Japanese market. The year before, a forerunner of Daiichi Sankyo had owned the Pravachol compound until its patent expired in 2002. (Click here for more - may require a subscription