Ruling in case on drug for nail fungus

from Reuters:

A U.S. appeals court on June 13, 2005 upheld a ruling that found a generic version of Johnson & Johnson's nail fungus drug Sporanox does not infringe on a company patent.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected an appeal by J&J unit Janssen Pharmaceutica, which sought to overturn a July 2004 ruling in favor of generic rival Eon Labs Inc.

Eon began shipping its generic capsule form of Sporanox in February and is entitled to six months of U.S. marketing exclusivity on the generic product under drug patent laws.

U.S. sales of Sporanox in the first quarter of 2005 were $20 million, down 27 percent from the $28 million in U.S. sales seen in the first quarter of 2004. Total global sales of the drug were $138 million in the first quarter of 2005, up from $129 million in the same period last year.

Swiss-based drug company Novartis has proposed to buy Eon Labs. The deal is still awaiting antitrust approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.