Teva Plan to Safeguard $4 Billion Drug Endangered by Ruling
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Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.’s plan to switch patients to a longer-acting version of its Copaxone treatment suffered a setback as a U.S. court ruling gave the $4 billion drug less than a year of patent protection.
Teva wants to move as many as half of the multiple-sclerosis patients taking daily Copaxone injections to a three-times-weekly version of the medicine. The U.S. Court of Appeals decision to invalidate a 2015 patent may allow generic competitors such as Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. to lure away patients with cheaper copies as early as next year, said Marc Goodman, an analyst at UBS AG.