July 19 (Reuters) – Sun Pharmaceutical (SUN.BO) said a U.S. court had denied its motion to reverse a jury verdict of infringement against the Indian firm on Pfizer’s (PFE.N) Protonix acid reflux drug patent that the jury had said was valid.
In a statement dated July 17, Sun said it was not prohibited from selling the drug before the expiry of Pfizer’s marketing exclusivity in January 2011, as its other claims concerning the validity of the patents, including patent misuse, were still pending.
In April, a jury in the U.S. District Court for New Jersey had rejected allegations by Teva and Sun Pharmaceutical that the patent on the widely used drug was obvious and should be declared invalid. [ID:nN23219271]
The original patent on Protonix, known chemically as pantoprazole, is held by Swiss drugmaker Nycomed [NYCMD.UL] and was licensed to Wyeth, which is now owned by Pfizer.
Nycomed and Wyeth filed their patent infringement lawsuit against Teva and Sun in May 2004. (Reporting by Bharghavi Nagaraju; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)