Lilly, Sepracor down on Prozac ruling

SEPR was off $23.375 (18 percent) to $106.125 and LLY was down $31.672 (29 percent) to $76.875 on Wednesday on news that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. reversed a previous ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana that had dismissed two claims made by Barr Laboratories (BRL) against LLY's U.S. patents covering the company's Prozac fluoxetine antidepressant. BRL, which has submitted an ANDA for a generic version of Prozac, had challenged two of LLY's patents providing market exclusivity for the drug. While the appeals court upheld the dismissal of one of BRL's claims, relating to LLY's patent that expires in February 2001, the appeals court reversed the dismissal of BRL's other claim, which relates to LLY's patent that expires in December 2003. BRL said the ruling therefore opens the possibility of generic competition for Prozac as early as February 2001. LLY said it will appeal the ruling. BRL was up $30.25 (66 percent) to $76 on Wednesday. ...