Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has received a favourable ruling from the United States Supreme Court regarding a patent litigation on Novo-Nordisk’s chemically similar version of Prandin, a diabetes drug.
The US Court ruled in favour of Sun Pharma’s US subsidiary, Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, in the patent litigation regarding generic repaglinide tablets. Repaglinide is sold by Novo Nordisk under the brand name Prandin.
Sun Pharma’s stock was up about two per cent on the BSE, following the US Court development, at Rs 595 on Wednesday.
“The Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, concluded that Caraco can seek correction of Novo Nordisk’s inaccurate use code regarding the combination use of repaglinide and metformin for the treatment of type 2 diabetes,” a Sun statement said.
The landmark decision will help all generic companies prevent brand companies from improperly delaying or preventing the marketing of generic drugs against their products by misrepresenting their patents to the USFDA, Sun added.
Caraco’s abbreviated new drug application for generic Prandin still awaits approval at the US Food and Drug Administration. A separate appeal concerning the validity of patents on Prandin is at present pending before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after a lower court ruled in favour of Caraco, Sun added. Prandin has annual sales of an estimated $230 million in the US.