re: Ann: RESPONSE TO ARTICLE IN TODAY'S F... Wyeth the...

re: Ann: RESPONSE TO ARTICLE IN TODAY'S F... Wyeth the manufactures of Efexor have filed an injunction to delay the launch of Sigma's product which is ready to go. This delays the launch until the patent challenge is resolved by the court.

Wyeth's strategy has been to extent patent protection by the introduction several years ago of a extended release formulation. So it is not the active ingredient but the formulation patent that is the subject of the action. I would think Sigma's Generic Scientists would have been smart enough to check that their generic equivalent would not infringe Wyeth's patent or that the patent was invalid (i.e. nature of the formulation already in common use and not patentable).

Nothing sinister here - it is just the usual strategies that both the inovator and the generic company play out.