Pfizer served up a dose of pain for generic drug-maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries when it defeated the company's appeals to put out a generic version of Pfizer's arthritis pain-drug Celebrex on Friday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals of the Federal District said that two of the three patents were valid, but threw out the third, saying that it was double-patented. Teva will now have to wait until 2014 to market the copycat. Celebrex provides Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) with annual global sales of $2.3 billion.
The New York-based pharma company has been battling it out with Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (nasdaq: TEVA - news - people ) to hang on to Celebrex for almost four years. Pfizer sued the Israel-based drug maker after it applied to U.S. regulators for permission to sell the generic in 2004. In March 2007, Pfizer won a ruling from a U.S. federal court over three of the main patents regarding Celebrex, barring Teva from manufacturing the generic until 2015. Teva appealed, but the ruling was mostly upheld on Friday, according to Tradethenews.com.
Shares of Pfizer were down on Friday by .8%, or 17 cents, to $21.42. Teva's stock was down by .7%, or 31 cents, $47.44.
In other Celebrex-related news, the New York Supreme Court ruled in Pfizer's favor at the beginning of January, saying the plaintiffs failed to present enough scientific evidence to prove that the arthritis drug can cause heart attacks and strokes at the 200 mg daily dosage. This follow a similar ruling by a U.S. District Court in Northern California in November.
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