July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Allergan Inc., maker of the Botox wrinkle treatment, won an appeals court ruling that prevents Apotex Inc. from selling a generic version of the Acular LS medicine for eye pain until next year.

Closely held Apotex has been banned from selling a copy of Acular, used to treat eye inflammations, since last year. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington today affirmed a lower court's ruling that extended the ban to the LS version, which treats eye pain or burning following cornea surgery.

The three-judge panel said it agreed with the lower court that the proposed generic drug infringes the patent, co-owned with a Roche Holding AG unit.

``Any difference in composition between the two formulations is merely colorable and the two formulations are `essentially the same,''' the appeals court wrote, citing the lower court.

Apotex also lost its bid to make new arguments that the patent is invalid. The drugmaker already made the arguments, and lost, in the earlier case, the appeals court said.

A representative of Weston, Ontario-based Apotex didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Allergan, based in Irvine, California, rose 55 cents to $52.84 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4:15 p.m. The stock has fallen 18 percent this year.

The case is Roche Palo Alto LLC v. Apotex Inc., 08-1021, U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Washington).

To contact the reporters on this story: William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 9, 2008 16:43 EDT