Court reinstates Teva's Famvir patent challenge against Novartis

A U.S. federal appeals court on Friday reversed a lower court ruling and reinstated a patent case filed by generic drugmaker Teva (TASE, Nasdaq: TEVA)  involving Novartis AG's genital herpes drug, Famvir.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said a U.S. district court in New Jersey erred when it dismissed Teva's lawsuit.

Representatives of the two companies could not immediately be reached for comment.

Global sales of Famvir ros 6% in 2006 compared with the year before to $268 million.

The active ingrediet in Famvir is protected by a patent that expires in 2010 in the United States, and in2008 in Europe. In Canada, it expired last year. Other patents protecting the drug expire in 2014 and 2015.

The appeals court, which specializes in hearing patent cases, said Teva has grounds to challenge the patents at issue in the case, in part because Novartis has sued Teva alleging infringement of a related patent.

In 2004 Teva filed an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell a generic version of Famvir. Novartis later filed suit, charging that Teva infringed on one of its five patents on the drug.

Teva sought to challenge all five patents, but the district court threw out its case related to the four patents for which Novartis did not sue.

The appeals court cited a recent Supreme Court decision that gives generic drugmakers more leeway to challenge patents in some cases.