Dr Reddy's, Teva settle `carvedilol' patent dispute: report

12 August 2008

Mumbai: Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Teva Pharmaceuticals have settled their patent dispute over carvedilol and DRL is now free to sell the drug in the US, CNBC-TV18 quoted Vikas Dandekar of PharmAsia News.com as saying in an interview.

Teva, based in Glasshoughton, England,  had sued DRL and five other Indian companies over infringement of carvedilol API. It sued DRL for three polymorphic patent and on crystalline form patent, the report said.

Teva, which owns the the technology that goes into manufacturing carvedilol, had also sued five other companies, including Ranbaxy Laboratories, Cadila, Lupin and Orchid Chemicals. But Teva went ahead and withdrew the case against Dr Reddy's as it sought summary judgement from the New Jersey district court.

Now that Teva has withdrawn the core patent case, Dr Reddy's will be able to sell this particular drug, which is licensed by Roche to GlaxoSmithKline in the US and is a very strong product as far as Teva is concerned.

DRL expects the market to be of the order of $400 million once the drug becomes generic and with less companies in the market DRL expects strong sales going ahead. 

Teva, however, is continuing with the cases against the other four companies and prevents them from accessing that market.