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Category: WTO Sub-category: Intellectual Property
Document type: news
Merck & Company has won two patent infringement lawsuits against Mylan Pharmaceuticals, a leading generic drug maker.
According to Merck & Company, commonly known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, MyIan is seeking to make generic versions of Merck's lucrative cholesterol pills, Zetia and Vytorin.
Both lawsuits were pertaining to the patent for ezetimibe, Zetia's active ingredient and a part of Vytorin, as well which also includes generic Zocor.
Zocor is an older Merck cholesterol pill that works differently.
The Judge of Federal District Court in Newark gave its ruling against MyIan on 27th of April.
The judge ruled that the patent in question, which runs until April 2017, is valid; therefore, Mylan cannot make generic versions of the drugs before the completion of that period.
Apart from giving the ruling against MyIan, the court also issued an injunction blocking the approval of Mylan's generic versions until the expiration of the patent.
However, this is not MyIan's first attempt at seeking those respective drugs. There are evidences that proves that MyIan, for a long time, was trying to get it hands on them.
Some time back, Mylan had been seeking US FDA approval to sell generic versions of Zetia and Vytorin.
In December 2009, Merck had filed the lawsuit against Mylan on the basis of Mylan's application to the FDA seeking pre-patent expiry approval to sell a generic version of Vytorin.
Moreover, in June 2010, Merck had filed a separate lawsuit against Mylan in respect of Mylan's application seeking pre-patent approval to sell a generic version of Zetia well.
However, it is noteworthy that Zetia, in its first quarter had its sales equivalent to $614 million and Vytorin's sales equal to $444 million. In addition to it, both of them had combined sales of $4.3 billion in 2011.
External Links:
Merck & Co., Inc., commonly known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Merck headquarters is located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. The company was established in 1891.
Mylan Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Mylan Inc. based in Morgantown, W.Va., is a market leader in researching, developing, manufacturing, marketing and distributing generic pharmaceutical products in a variety of sophisticated dosage forms.
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