Wednesday, January 18, 2006

AstraZeneca - generic Toprol-XL ok'd

Poor AZ. They have just lost a battle to protect the US patent covering its fourth-biggest drug Toprol XL, raising the prospect of the launch of generic versions in the next few months.

Europe's third-largest drugmaker said it will be appealing the summary judgement delivered by a Missouri court. But the generic drug makers it was fighting -- KV Pharmaceutical Co, Andrx Corp and Eon Labs, part of Novartis AG -- are now likely to hurry to get their cheaper versions to the market.

Sales for Toprol-XL in the U.S. last year were $1.3 billion.

Insiders' view: good! This beta blocker is an old drug that has been evergreened. It's about time a generic was available.

Interactive Investor

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