US Court rejects Teva’s Copaxone appeal

A US district court has dismissed a case by Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE: TEVA) intended to block the US Food and Drug Administration from approving generic versions of Teva's blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone (glatiramer acetate), including from US generics maker Mylan (Nasdaq: MYL).

The case, in US District Court in Washington DC, was dismissed on Wednesday as being premature because the FDA had not yet approved or rejected the applications for generic forms of the drug, Teva said. Mylan had intervened in this suit in support of the FDA.

Copaxone generated sales of $4.3 billion ($3.2 million in the USA), a rise of 8% on 2012 and more than half of the company’s specialty medicines sales of $8.4 million in 2013.