Teva, GlaxoSmithKline infectious news
On Dec. 17, 2013, GlaxoSmithKline and ViiV Healthcare LLC said the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware upheld the validity of U.S. Patents No. 6,417,191 covering GSK's antiretroviral combinations. The patent, which cover the combination of abacavir and lamivudine and the combination of abacavir, lamivudine and zidivudine, expires in March 2016. According to GSK and ViiV, Teva previously acknowledged to the court that its generic version of Epzicom abacavir/lamivudine infringes the '191 patent. The court also ruled that Teva's Lupin, a generic version of Trizivir abacavir/lamivudine/zidivudine does not infringe the '191 patent. ViiV said it is disappointed with the Trizivir portion of the ruling and it is evaluating options for next steps in the legal process. ViiV markets GSK's antiretrovirals Epzicom and Trizivir, which are combinations of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI). GSK recorded £189 million ($309.3 million) in U.S. Epzicom sales and £42 million ($68.7 million) in U.S. Trizivir sales for the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2013. ...