Wyeth, Intellipharmaceuticals Settle Patent Infringement Litigation Over Generic Effexor XR
A patent infringement lawsuit that Wyeth, the makers of Effexor, filed against Intellipharmaceutics International Inc. has been settled.
The suit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, focused on Intellipharmaceutics' generic version of Effexor XR in capsule form. As per the terms and conditions of this new settlement agreement between the two drug companies, Intellipharmaceutics is now allowed to hold a non-exclusive license to the patents so that they can now launch their own generic version of Effexor XR in the U.S. as long as the company gets approval from the FDA. Right now, there are no real assurances of any product that Intellipharmaceutics makes but the current success of Effexor in brand name and generic forms is certainly worth the effort.
So far, Wolters Kluwer Health is saying that Effexor XR, as well as the generic versions of it, have had sales of $2.8 billion in the United States alone in the last 12 months. That is an astounding record considering the host of lawsuits being filed against Wyeth, now a division of Pfizer, over the drug's adverse side effects. Regardless of the potential for lawsuits on the drug, Intellipharmaceutics stands to make enough money from sales to cover that expense and still make a hefty profit.
Dr. Isa Odidi, CEO of Intellipharmaceutics, showed just how excited the company is when the doctor said, "We are very pleased with the settlement of the litigation relating to our generic version of Effexor XR, as this removes a significant barrier to the commercial launch of our generic product upon FDA approval. With five products awaiting FDA approval, we continue to work aggressively to both advance and expand the number of products in our portfolio."
