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Cephalon Adds Sandoz to String of Lawsuits to Protect Patents on Sleep Drug

Written by: David Castillo on January 27th, 2010

Cephalon Adds Sandoz to String of Lawsuits to Protect Patents on Sleep Drug | read this item

[CityBizList] — Cephalon Inc. (Nasdaq: CEPH) has filed a lawsuit against Sandoz Inc. alleging infringements over its patents on a drug to treat sleep disorders, according to an 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, follows an “Abbreviated New Drug Application” by Sandoz seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell in the United States a generic equivalent of Cephalon’s prescription drug Nuvigil.

Under the Hatch-Waxman Act governing generic drugs, the filing of the lawsuit by Cephalon stays FDA approval of Sandoz’s application for 30 months or until a judgment is made by the court.

Cephalon has filed a string of cases in recent months to protect its patents over the sleep drug. It has similar ongoing suits against Watson Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: WPI) in Corona, Calif., and Mylan Inc. (Nasdaq: MYL) of Canonsburg, Pa.

Cephalon, based in Frazer, is a biotechnology company developing drugs to treat central nervous system disorders, pain and cancer. It sells eight proprietary products in the United States and more than 30 internationally.

Sandoz is a division of Switzerland’s Novartis (NYSE: NVS), headquartered in Basel. Its U.S. unit is in Princeton, N.J.

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