Pretrial order in Sanofi Plavix case set for March 4, 2005

Blood-thinner Plavix, which Sanofi expects to have $7.94 billion in 2006 if the patent holds, is a top-selling product for the world's third-largest drugmaker.

Since 2002, Apotex and Dr Reddy's have been challenging Sanofi over a patent on Plavix that expires in 2011. They argue that the molecule defined in the patent is not truly new and inventive, because it is an enantiomer of a racemate which lost patent protection in 2003.