U.S. District Court of Delaware ruled to reject 4 of 5 patent claims from Teva Pharmaceuticals. The court refused the claims on patent infringement on the Copaxone, the generic drug for multiple sclerosis filed by the largest generic drug maker. Teva will file an appeal against the court ruling.
U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet ruled on Monday, Jan. 30, that four patents claim filed by Teva were invalid as obvious. Following the court ruling, Teva President and CEO Erez Vigodman said to file an appeal immediately, according to Reuters.
“We intend to move forward with an immediate appeal,” CEO Vigodman said and expressed determination to protect Copaxone vigorously against further challenges.
Teva Pharmaceuticals filed the patent infringement claim against pharmaceutical companies Sandoz, Mylan and Pfizer which produced a similar multiple sclerosis drug patented by Teva. The drug, Copaxone is one of the company’s main revenue in the specialty medicine, accounted 19 percent of the total revenue in 2016.
Following the court ruling, shares of the Israeli-based pharmaceutical company plummeted by 6 percent on Tuesday morning, as reported by Bloomberg. The company shares fell to the lowest level in 10 years.
The court ruling gave another blow to Teva which previously had to adjust its revenue guidance by $1.5 billion in early January. Teva cut the revenue guidance due to the low performance of its generic drugs business.
As for now, the company’s market capitalization is at $33 billion. However, Teva made a bold decision two years ago to buy Actavis Generics, the generic drugs business of Allergan for stunning $40.5 billion in July 2015. It also sold many of its marketed generic drugs to Impax Laboratories and Mayne Pharma for $586 million and $652 million respectively.
Teva employed 43,000 people in 60 countries to cater the needs of around 200 million patients a year. Watch the company profile of Teva Phamaceutical below:
