Tuesday, April 02, 2013

Court Rules AstraZeneca's U.S. Pulmicort Patent Invalid

A court has ruled that a patent protecting AstraZeneca PLC's (AZN.LN) Pulmicort Respules asthma drug in the U.S. is invalid, the company said Tuesday, dealing a blow to the company's dwindling drugs portfolio and allowing U.S. generic drugmaker Actavis Inc. (ACT) to launch a copy of the drug.

The ruling comes at a difficult time for Anglo-Swedish drugs giant AstraZeneca, which is battling sharp declines in revenues as patents on top-selling drugs like cholesterol treatment Crestor and antipsychotic medicine Seroquel expire.

The company last month unveiled a $2.3 billion restructuring plan including thousands of job cuts as new Chief Executive Pascal Soriot seeks to find new paths to growth.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2013/04/02/court-rules-astrazeneca-us-pulmicort-patent-invalid/?

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