Bernstein Research analyst Dr. Aaron (Ronny) Gal has been covering the court hearing in which Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) is suing Mylan, Natco, Momenta and Sandoz for patent infringement of Copaxone, its flagship branded drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Having observed the first two days of the trial, Gal said that the "Teva has got off on the right foot."
The first witness called by Teva has been Teva's former VP R&D Dr. Irit Pinchasi. The pharmaceutical companies being sued have tried to prove that Teva did not act appropriately when registering the patent.
Gal feels that the testimony of Pinchasi did not provide proof that Teva behaved inappropriately.
Today Teva will call Prof. Ruth Arnon, Prof. of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science. She discovered the drug with Prof. Michael Sela. She has told "Globes" in the past that, "Generally when creating a new generic drug, the molecule is defined and seems chemically identical. But here we are talking about a random polymer, a mixture, and the synthesis process is not simple. The production details are concealed and there is no way that a generic company can prove its process is identical."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 13, 2011
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