Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Sanofi-Aventis SA, the third-largest drugmaker, sued generic medicine manufacturers including Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and Barr Laboratories Inc. over Uroxatral, a drug used for treating prostate gland enlargement.

Sanofi contends the generic drugmakers are infringing two U.S. patents in their plans to market versions of the medicine, according to two complaints filed Sept. 21 in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

``Plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed'' if copies of the drug, whose chemical name is alfuzosin hydrochloride, are approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to the complaints.

Sanofi, based in Paris, had $35.6 billion in sales last year. The company has been seeking products to help revive profit as its older drugs face generic competition. One of the patents in the lawsuit was awarded in 1987, the other in 2000.

Prostate enlargement usually occurs in men over 40, and about half of all men in their 60s have some related symptoms, according to Sanofi's Web site.

Teva spokeswoman Denise Bradley declined to comment. Teva USA is a unit of Peta-Tikva, Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world's biggest maker of generic drugs. Carol Cox, a spokeswoman for Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based Barr, a unit of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., didn't return a call seeking comment.

Also Sued

Also sued were Actavis South Atlantic LLC of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. of Hyderabad, India; Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Morgantown, West Virginia; Par Pharmaceutical Inc. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey; Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. of Gurgaon, India; Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. of Mumbai, India; and Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. of Ahmedabad, India.

Actavis Group spokesman David Myers Jr., Mylan Spokeswoman Kris King, Par spokesman E. Peter Wolf and Ranbaxy spokesman Charles Caprariello didn't return calls seeking comment. Kamesh Venugopal, U.S. president for Torrent, declined to comment.

Shares of Sanofi-Aventis rose 5 cents to 60.39 euros in Paris trading today. The stock has fallen 13 percent this year. Pfizer Inc. is the world's largest drugmaker, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc is second.

Officials of Aurobindo and Sun weren't immediately available for comment.

To review the disputed patents through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Web site, search for patent numbers 4,661,491 and 6,149,940 at http://patft.uspto.gov.

The cases are: Sanofi-Aventis v. Activis South Atlantic, et al, 07-00572; and Sanofi-Aventis v. Barr Laboratories Inc., 07- 00574, U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (Wilmington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware at pmilford@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 24, 2007 18:48 EDT