The lawsuit was originally filed in the US District of New Jersey by Wyeth (now part of Pfizer) and Nycomed (now owned by Takeda) against Sun Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (Teva) back in May 2004 [1].

Teva and Sun Pharma started selling their generic versions of Protonix (pantoprazole) in the US in December 2007 and January 2008 respectively, until they were ordered to stop in April 2010 by a US federal court.

Wyeth is now claiming damages of US$960 million from Sun Pharma due to the ‘at-risk’ launch of its generic version of its acid reflux drug Protonix (pantoprazole) in the US. The filing apparently includes sales lost due to Sun Pharma’s entry in the market, litigation costs and other damages relating to Protonix, Mr Souvik Chatterjee, an analyst at SMC Global Securities told Bloomberg.

In 2007, before Teva and Sun Pharma launched their generic pantoprazole products, sales of Protonix had reached US$1.9 billion. Sales dropped by 58% in 2008 after the generics were launched.

‘Sun Pharma believes that it has sound reasons to disagree with these overstated claims of Wyeth, and also continues to believe that the patent is invalid and unenforceable and will pursue all available legal remedies including appeals,’ the company said in a statement, adding that Teva may be liable for some of Sun Pharma’s damages and vice versa.

Sun Pharma also stated that it will be ‘providing its own assessment on the purported damages’, after which ‘patent misuse and appropriate level of damages will be determined’.

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Reference

1.  GaBI Online - Generics and Biosimilars Initiative. Sun and Teva losing battle over generic Protonix [www.gabionline.net]. Mol, Belgium: Pro Pharma Communications International; [cited 2012 Feb 24]. Available from: www.gabionline.net/Generics/News/Sun-and-Teva-losing-battle-over-generic-Protonix