Teva sues Apotex to block generic Coreg

Israel-headquartered Teva Pharmaceutical has sued Canada-based Apotex to prevent the generic rival from selling a copy of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) antihypertensive drug, Coreg (carvedilol).

Apotex, Teva and other generic-drug makers won FDA approval to sell the generic version on 5 September 2007. Teva says that it owns four patents which cover various forms and processes to make carvedilol.

To sell carvedilol, says Teva, Apotex might have to purchase the compound made using the patented process. Apotex has not supplied the necessary data required to rule whether the generic uses patented processes or not. Teva has filed for a court order to prevent patent infringement by Apotex.

For H1 FY07, Coreg posted sales of USD 854m and analysts say that the annual generic market for carvedilol could be worth as much as USD 50m.