Pharmaceutical Patent Litigation Over Protonix Appears to Finally be Over for Pfizer

The case is Altana Pharma AG et al. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. et al., case number 2:04-02355, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Altana and its former licensee of the drug, Wyeth, sued Teva Pharmaceuticals and Sun Pharmaceuticals for violating Patent no. 4,758,579 which covers the anti-acid inflamation drug, Protonix. (Altana and Wyeth were later acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer, respectively). Teva and Sun filed patents for generic versions of the drug and began selling it in 2004, well before the patent expired in 2011.