JERUSALEM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2013--
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) announced that the
District Court of the Hague (Netherlands) has issued a favorable ruling
in a patent revocation action brought by Mylan B.V., a subsidiary of
Mylan Laboratories Inc., seeking a court judgment that Teva’s European
Patent (NL) 762,888 expiring May 2015 for its relapsing-remitting
multiple sclerosis (RRMS) product, COPAXONE® (glatiramer acetate
injection) is invalid. The District Court of the Hague rejected each one
of the grounds of invalidity Mylan had raised against the claims of
Teva’s ‘888 patent. The favorable ruling follows a similar outcome in
the English Court of Appeal in July 2013 which also affirmed that the
claims of Teva’s patent are valid.
Any potential generic version of COPAXONE® would require a marketing
authorization from the Netherlands Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB)
before it could be commercialized. Given the complexity of COPAXONE®,
Teva believes unpredictable differences between a proposed generic
product and COPAXONE® could lead to immunogenic effects in patients. The
inability to fully characterize the active ingredients of the product
leads many experts to believe that the only way to ensure the safety,
efficacy and immunogenicity of any purported generic version of
COPAXONE® would be through full-scale, placebo-controlled clinical
trials with measured clinical endpoints (such as relapse rate) in RRMS
patients.
ABOUT COPAXONE®
COPAXONE® (glatiramer acetate injection) is indicated for the
reduction of the frequency of relapses in relapsing-remitting multiple
sclerosis, including patients who have experienced a first clinical
episode and have MRI features consistent with multiple sclerosis. The
most common side effects of COPAXONE® are redness, pain,
swelling, itching, or a lump at the site of injection, flushing, rash,
shortness of breath, and chest pain. See additional important
information at: http://www.sharedsolutions.com/redirect/PrescribingInformation.pdf.
For hardcopy releases, please see enclosed full prescribing information.
COPAXONE® is now approved in more than 50 countries
worldwide, including the United States, Russia, Canada, Mexico,
Australia, Israel, and all European countries.
Important Safety Information about COPAXONE®
Patients allergic to glatiramer acetate or mannitol should not take
COPAXONE®. Some patients report a short-term reaction right
after injecting COPAXONE®. This reaction can involve flushing
(feeling of warmth and/or redness), chest tightness or pain with heart
palpitations, anxiety, and trouble breathing. These symptoms generally
appear within minutes of an injection, last about 15 minutes, and go
away by themselves without further problems. During the postmarketing
period, there have been reports of patients with similar symptoms who
received emergency medical care. If symptoms become severe, patients
should call the emergency phone number in their area. Patients
should call their doctor right away if they develop hives, skin rash
with irritation, dizziness, sweating, chest pain, trouble breathing, or
severe pain at the injection site. If any of the above occurs, patients
should not give themselves any more injections until their doctor tells
them to begin again. Chest pain may occur either as part of the
immediate postinjection reaction or on its own. This pain should only
last a few minutes. Patients may experience more than one such episode,
usually beginning at least one month after starting treatment. Patients
should tell their doctor if they experience chest pain that lasts for a
long time or feels very intense. A permanent indentation under the skin
(lipoatrophy or, rarely, necrosis) at the injection site may occur, due
to local destruction of fat tissue. Patients should follow proper
injection technique and inform their doctor of any skin changes. The
most common side effects of COPAXONE® are redness, pain,
swelling, itching, or a lump at the site of injection, flushing, rash,
shortness of breath, and chest pain. These are not all of the possible
side effects of COPAXONE®. For a complete list, patients
should ask their doctor or pharmacist. Patients should tell their doctor
about any side effects they have while taking COPAXONE®.
Patients are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription
drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch
or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
ABOUT TEVA
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA) is a leading global
pharmaceutical company, committed to increasing access to high-quality
healthcare by developing, producing and marketing affordable generic
drugs as well as innovative and specialty pharmaceuticals and active
pharmaceutical ingredients. Headquartered in Israel, Teva is the world's
leading generic drug maker, with a global product portfolio of more than
1,000 molecules and a direct presence in about 60 countries. Teva's
branded businesses focus on CNS, oncology, pain, respiratory and women's
health therapeutic areas as well as biologics. Teva currently employs
approximately 46,000 people around the world and reached $20.3 billion
in net revenues in 2012.
Teva's Safe Harbor Statement under the U. S. Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
This release contains forward-looking statements, which express the
current beliefs and expectations of management. Such statements are
based on management’s current beliefs and expectations and involve a
number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause our
future results, performance or achievements to differ significantly from
the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or
contribute to such differences include risks relating to: our ability to
develop and commercialize additional pharmaceutical products,
competition for our innovative products, especially Copaxone® (including
competition from innovative orally-administered alternatives, as well as
from potential purported generic equivalents), competition for our
generic products (including from other pharmaceutical companies and as a
result of increased governmental pricing pressures), competition for our
specialty pharmaceutical businesses, our ability to achieve expected
results through our innovative R&D efforts, the effectiveness of our
patents and other protections for innovative products, decreasing
opportunities to obtain U.S. market exclusivity for significant new
generic products, our ability to identify, consummate and successfully
integrate acquisitions, the effects of increased leverage as a result of
recent acquisitions, the extent to which any manufacturing or quality
control problems damage our reputation for high quality production and
require costly remediation, our potential exposure to product liability
claims to the extent not covered by insurance, increased government
scrutiny in both the U.S. and Europe of our agreements with brand
companies, potential liability for sales of generic products prior to a
final resolution of outstanding patent litigation, our exposure to
currency fluctuations and restrictions as well as credit risks, the
effects of reforms in healthcare regulation and pharmaceutical pricing
and reimbursement, any failures to comply with complex Medicare and
Medicaid reporting and payment obligations, governmental investigations
into sales and marketing practices (particularly for our specialty
pharmaceutical products), uncertainties surrounding the legislative and
regulatory pathways for the registration and approval of
biotechnology-based products, adverse effects of political or economical
instability, corruption, major hostilities or acts of terrorism on our
significant worldwide operations, interruptions in our supply chain or
problems with our information technology systems that adversely affect
our complex manufacturing processes, any failure to retain key personnel
or to attract additional executive and managerial talent, the impact of
continuing consolidation of our distributors and customers, variations
in patent laws that may adversely affect our ability to manufacture our
products in the most efficient manner, potentially significant
impairments of intangible assets and goodwill, potential increases in
tax liabilities, the termination or expiration of governmental programs
or tax benefits, environmental risks and other factors that are
discussed in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December
31, 2012 and in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on
which they are made and the Company undertakes no obligation to update
or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.
Source: Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.