Big Day for the Brands: Generic Pharma Companies Lose Patent

After nearly four years of litigation and a three-week bench trial in August, Bristol-Myers and its partner Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. finally convinced a federal district court judge in New Jersey to block Apotex, Novartis, Sun, and Teva from selling generic versions of the antipsychotic Abilify®, which generated nearly $2 billion in sales in the first nine months of 2010. Otsuka, which developed Abilify® and markets the drug in partnership with Bristol-Myers, sued the generics for patent infringement in early 2007, after they or their predecessor companies filed applications with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to sell generic versions of Abilify® in the United States. The ruling states that generics will not be able sell their versions of Abilify® in the U.S. until an Otsuka patent on the drug expires in 2015.