Deals
Cubist Barred From Blocking Generic Cubicin Beyond 2016
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Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., the drugmaker being bought by Merck & Co. for $8.4 billion, lost a bid to block Hospira Inc. from offering a generic version of its top-selling Cubicin treatment for flesh-eating infections beyond 2016. Merck shares fell.
Four patents covering the drug, two of which expire in 2019 and two in 2020, are invalid because they don’t contain new inventions, U.S. District Judge Gregory Sleet in Wilmington, Delaware, ruled yesterday. Sleet upheld a fifth patent on the medicine designed to combat skin infections caused by the bacterium including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.