Washington - Bristol-Myers Squibb will ask a US court to stop generic versions of its bestselling drug Plavix, four months after ousting its chief executive for bungling a deal to delay copycats of the medicine.
Bristol-Myers and Sanofi-Aventis, France's biggest drug maker, will urge a federal judge to uphold the patent on Plavix, a blood thinner, in a trial set to begin on Monday in New York.
Apotex, a drug maker that wants to resume sales of a generic version of Plavix, claims that the patent, which is due to expire in 2011, is invalid.
"Upholding this patent is critical" for Bristol-Myers, said Barbara Ryan, a Deutsche Bank analyst who has a hold rating on the shares.
"If they lost the Plavix exclusivity, the company's earnings would decline significantly."
Plavix, the world's second-biggest-selling drug, generated global sales of $6.3 billion (R45 billion) in 2005, with $3.8 billion in the US.
Prescriptions for Plavix plunged 32 percent in the third quarter after closely held Apotex shipped a six-month supply of its version in August. The following month, Bristol-Myers ousted chief executive Peter Dolan and general counsel Richard Willard for bungling a deal with Apotex.
"If they lose, it is a very bad situation for Bristol," said Les Funtleyder, an analyst with Miller Tabak. "However, these patent trials have in the past favoured the innovator."
Paul Diggle, an analyst at Nomura Code Securities, agreed: "Most people assume they're going to win because the judge in the last hearing seemed to imply that he thought the Apotex case was rather weak." - Bloomberg