Recently in the news, Teva was challenging Merck on their patent and now it looks like there’s a few more joining the legal process, other drug companies and a couple insurance firms, Singulair is one big patent in question and this has to be costing the company a lot of money.  Singulair brought in over 4 billion in sales in 2008 and the current patent doesn’t expire until the year 2012, so there’s quite a bit of time left on the patent clock.  BD 

Merck and Teva Go to Court over Singulair Going Generic

NEW YORK — The battle over the patent on Merck and Co.'s allergy and asthma drug Singulair, the best-selling drug of one of the world's

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largest drug makers, continued Friday as a group of drug distributors and health insurers sued Merck.

The filers say Merck should never have been awarded one of the key patents supporting the drug, and that is has wrongfully intimidated rivals by suing them for patent infringement, which has kept competing versions of Singulair off the U.S. market and allowed Merck to charge a higher price for Singulair.

The companies say Merck kept a monopoly on the drug, and as a result, they have overpaid for Singulair over the last six years. The claimants in the cases are Louisiana Wholesale Drug Co., Burlington Drug Co., Miami-Luken Inc., District Council 37 Health & Security Plan and The Guardian Life Insurance Co.

Merck sued over patent on allergy drug Singulair

Related Reading:

Merck Issues Statement on Singulair Patent Challenge from Teva

Healthcare Patents – How Long and How Much is Becoming a Challenging Question

Merck and Teva Go to Court over Singulair Going Generic
Sanofi Patent Protections Expiring – Looking to Joining the Generics

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