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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEli Lilly and Co. has temporarily blocked Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. from selling a cheaper generic copy of Lilly’s osteoporosis drug Evista.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker issued a restraining order yesterday in Lilly’s hometown of Indianapolis, keeping raloxifene HCl tablets off the market for at least 10 days.
The ruling kicked off the first day of a patent-infringement trial between the two companies. Lilly is trying to maintain exclusive marketing rights to the drug until 2014.
“We appreciate the court issuing the temporary restraining order and look forward to completing the trial and vindicating our patent rights,” Lilly said in a prepared statement. “We believe Teva’s challenges to Lilly’s Evista patent are without merit and we expect to prevail in this litigation. We have taken and will continue to take all appropriate actions needed to protect our intellectual property rights as they relate to Evista.”
Last year, Barker granted Lilly an order that prevented the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from approving Israel-based Teva’s application to market generic Evista. That order was set to expire yesterday.
Teva’s attorneys said the company is prepared to begin marketing generic Evista right away. But Teva also has made an offer to Lilly to do only a “modest launch” of the generic drug, which would include no marketing.
It was not clear what if any response Lilly gave to that offer.
Teva is arguing before Barker that Lilly’s remaining patents on the drug are based on obvious science and should not have been granted.
Evista sales totaled more than $1 billion in 2008.
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