Court deliberates Apotex' Plavix launch

In the second day of the federal court hearing between US pharmaceutical major Bristol-Myers Squibb, leading French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis and their generic rival Apotex over the blood thinner Plavix (clopidogrel), Judge Stein declared that the full patent trial would start in 2007.

In the meantime, the parties have been given until August 24, 2006, to submit additional documents to the court, which means that the earliest the verdict can be expected on whether Apotex will have to pay damages to Plavix' originators is August 25.

The privately-held Canadian generic pharmaceutical firm launched its copy-cat verison of the world's second best-selling drug on August 8 (Marketletter August 14) and, according to prescription data tracker Verispan, for the week ended August 18, generic Plavix held 60.2% of the total and 74% of new prescriptions written for the drug.