Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq:TEVA; TASE:TEVA) has had a setback in its struggle to market a generic version of Eisai's Aricept for the treatment of Alzheimer's in the US.
The FDA gave the exclusive go ahead to Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. to start marketing generic Aricept as soon as the drug's patent expires on November 25 2010.
The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has changed an application from Teva to market generic Aricept from "approved' to "tentatively approved," meaning the company cannot market the drug for at least 180 days.
Eisai had annual sales of Aricept worth $3.2 billion in the last fiscal year, of which 60% was in the US.
Teva's share price closed up more than 2% at $54.56 on Nasdaq yesterday, giving a market cap of $49 billion, after the company published positive results from a clinical trial of Laquinimod for the oral treatment of multiple sclerosis. The share price was up 1.29% on the TASE today at NIS 204.00.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 21, 2010
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