Integrilin® is an FDA approved, branded injectable drug product licensed to Schering-Plough by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, for the treatment of patients with acute coronary syndrome. While it will likely only generate about $300 million in sales (and far less in gross margin) this year for Schering-Plough, the company just disclosed that it had filed suit against several potential generic-drug manufacturers on February 18, 2009 -- for patent infringement -- in no small part, to prevent these competitors from bringing a generic version of Integrilin (eptifibatide) to market -- any time soon. I'll report much more on this before too long, but here is the new Schering-Plough disclosure item, in the first quarter Form 10-Q (in "Legal Proceedings", at page 38), filed last night:
. . . .on February 18, 2009 Schering-Plough and its licensor filed patent infringement actions against companies seeking approval of a generic version of Integrilin. . . .
Interesting. Next week, I get into some research -- about whether any of these now-sued competitors are likely to conduct an "at risk" generic launch, prior to the resolution of this piece of patent litigation.
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